Fellowships to Boost UK Fluid Dynamics Sector

The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) has invested £3.7 million in fluid dynamics research with 11 new National Fellowships to address common research problems and boost industrial and academic collaboration across the UK.

With a world-class fluid dynamics sector worth nearly £14 billion, over 2000 firms in the UK employ approximately 45,000 people working in areas as diverse as environmental sustainability, advanced medicine and industrial process efficiency.

While several hundred students achieve PhDs in fluid dynamics each year there has also been a shortage in postdoctoral positions for them to advance further in this field. It is this shortfall that the new fellowships will aim to address through personal support, equipping individuals to propagate and apply techniques from data-driven fluids to a wealth of application areas in this industry sector.

A hub for the National Fellowships in Fluid Dynamics, also funded by EPSRC, will build on the work of the UK Fluids Network and embed the fellowships within the UK Fluids community, enabling information, expertise and methodological approaches to problems in different application areas to be shared with other fellows and industry.

Dr Rachel Bishop, Deputy Director for Research Base at EPSRC said: “We are delighted to be able to give some of the brightest young engineers and scientists the chance to develop their research careers in fluid dynamics.

“The National Fellowships in Fluid Dynamics are a great way to bring together academia and industry to give new momentum to a vibrant sector.

“Fluid dynamics research has the potential to grow the UK economy and help us address some of the key challenges of our age, from health and medicine to industrial development and sustainability.”

Professor Matthew Juniper, Principal Investigator, Hub for the National Fellowships in Fluid Dynamics said: “The UK is a world leader in fluid dynamics research, which is central to numerous societal and industrial challenges.

“These fellowships have grown out of sustained investment in this crucial discipline. They will help the UK to remain a global leader, while also looking to a future that combines recent data-driven methods with centuries of accumulated physics-based knowledge.”

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