The metals industry accounts for 46% of all EU manufacturing value and 11% of the EU’s total GDP. This equates to an added value of about €1.3 trillion annually, or €3.5 billion per day in the EU*.

In addition to economic value, the metals industry provides a significant contribution to a number of the future challenges facing society, e.g. the modernisation and energy efficiency of transport systems, the promotion of security and consumer safety for energy generation.

It has been pointed out by many companies in the UK, however, that the lack of well-trained metals engineers remains a major concern for high-value manufacturing industry, e.g. aero-space, power generation, gas and oil, offshore engineering sectors.

IMPaCT is born out of our recognition of a national and strategic need for training future leaders who are able to fully exploit and deploy innovative metal processing techniques in industry.

IMPaCT brings together world-class metals research teams from the universities of Leicester, Birmingham and Nottingham along with industrial and international partners. The Centre has secured significant financial support from EPSRC, the three universities and our industrial partners including Alstom Power, Doncasters Group, Rolls-Royce, ESI Group, STFC, Tata Steel, TWI and Welding Alloys.

IMPaCT is part of a £350 million initiative to train post graduate students in engineering and physical sciences, announced by the UK Universities and Science Minister in November 2013. Training in the Centre will has a broad coverage of metal processing themes, such as single crystal casting,

dissimilar welding, net-shape forming, surface engineering and nanomaterial synthesis.

The first year includes Master level training modules hosted across the three Universities and affiliate research facilities, along with the start of professional development training that will continue throughout the course.

The next 3 years follow a research PhD within one of the themes working along side our industry partners, with IMPaCT providing academic supervision and continued training in transferable skills.

Beyond this, there are an array of student-led events organised by IMPaCT, e.g. mini-symposia, workshops and summer schools, where you can form interdisciplinary networks and collaborations.

Professor H.B. Dong
Scientific Director
IMPaCT

[*] Metallurgy Europe – A Renaissance Programme for 2012-2022 (Materials Science & Engineering Expert Committee, European Science Foundation, editor David Jarvis, June 2012