Aura Offshore Wind Training Centre Secures GBP 5.5 Million Boost

A UK consortium led by the University of Hull has won a GBP 5.5 million funding for the Aura Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) aimed at boosting offshore wind skills and investment.

The bid, which the university’s Energy & Environment Institute secured from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), will gather over 70 post-graduate PhD students.

According to Dan Parsons, director of the institute, the Aura CTD will contribute to the UK’s offshore wind talent pipeline and a low-carbon transition, ensuring that academia and industry work closely together to develop solutions for the current challenges in the industry.

“CDTs are a very effective way of training a significant number of PhD students and creating an environment for real innovation to flourish through pure and applied research. It will integrate academic and industry expertise locally here in the Humber, which is rapidly becoming the home of the offshore wind sector, bringing much needed investment to the region,” said Parsons.

“The CDT mechanism is a real opportunity for post-graduate students because it provides a four-year, funded doctoral training programme to a significant number of PhD students.”

The CDT research integrates engineering and the environment and will be centred on the Humber region, the university said, adding the win is a major step forward for its CDT partner universities Sheffield, Durham and Newcastle.

“This major funding award for the CDT is critical to the Aura initiative in the Humber. As a catalyst for collaboration in offshore wind and low-carbon energy, the hard work that the Aura team and its partners have been putting in over the last two years to bring all the key stakeholders together is bearing fruit,” said Aura Director, Ben George.

“The Aura CDT, which will focus on innovation in offshore wind, is helping to realise the ambitions for a low-carbon society as set out in the Government’s Industrial and Clean Growth Strategies.”