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DCU to lead Erasmus Mundus Joint Doctoral Programme
A proposal entitled 'EXTATIC' or Extreme-ultraviolet and X-ray Technology and Training for Interdisciplinary Cooperation has been selected for funding by the EACEA acting on behalf of the EC.
The proposal was led by DCU’s School of Physical Sciences. The objective is to establish a joint European PhD programme in EUV and X-ray Science and Technology. In total 10 proposals from over 140 submitted by consortia from across Europe were selected for funding. Although three existing EMJD programmes have Irish partners, this is the first time that one has been awarded with an Irish lead institution.
The partners include University College Dublin, Kings College London, The University of Southampton, Czech Technical University-Prague, The University of Padua, The Military University of Warsaw and RWTH-Aachen University.
The Associated university partners include Colorado State University (USA), Purdue University (USA), Tongji University (China).
Current associated industry partners include Silson (UK), Prevac (Poland), XENOCS France), EPPRA (France), Rigaku Innovative Technologies (Prague) and Bruker (Germany)
The partners have wide experience in diverse PhD student supervision and training models and have worked closely together in many and varied scientific and graduate education collaborations, most recently in the frame of a COST action, MP0601 - Short Wavelength Laboratory Sources. MP0601 focussed on providing opportunities for young researchers to present their work and receive training at partner laboratories via short-term scientific missions (STSMs) and summer schools.
EMJD programs are designed to "foster cooperation between higher education institutions and academic staff in Europe and Third Countries with a view to creating poles of excellence and providing highly trained human resources."Â EXTATIC will recruit 10 PhD students per year building up to 40 students over 4 years who will travel between the University and Industry sites during their PhD studies. It is a structured PhD programme with research lecture and laboratory elements as well as independent research.
The overarching objective of this EMJD proposal is to provide high-level training in Extreme UV (EUV) and X-ray science to a new generation of high achieving graduate students to provide them with the transferable skills necessary for thriving careers in a burgeoning area that underpins innovative technological development across a range of diverse disciplines. This goal will be achieved by a unique combination of ‘hands-on’ research training, industrial placements and courses and workshops on scientific and complementary so-called ‘soft’ skills facilitated by the academic-industrial composition of our network.
Building on the inherent partner synergies, we will leverage existing structured doctoral modules and programmes at the partner institutions. We will extend the resulting integrated doctoral programme network more widely and offer it to prospective students without borders.The domain of EUV and X-ray science and technology is leading to major advances in applications in a wide range of disciplines such as: the life and medical sciences; environmental science; archaeology and other cultural heritage disciplines; analytical and materials science, amongst many others. It is fair to say that critical, impending and future applications will see short wavelength sources, optics and photonics move from the laboratory bench to the industrial tool within the coming decade to augment, or in some cases, supplant, the wide gamut of current applications and deployments currently enabled by conventional visible and UV radiation.
A case in point is extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUVL) needed to ensure the continuation of Moore’s Law of Miniaturisation beyond 2012, another is X-ray microscopy in the “water window” — λ ≈ 2.3 – 4.4nm, allowing high resolution imaging of biological specimens in near-natural environments. Despite these, and other impending critical applications, in analytical, medical, security and industrial sectors, a quotation from one of our industrial partners encapsulates an imminent crisis in recruitment “It is getting harder and harder to recruit people with the high level scientific knowledge combined with the relevant laboratory experience and skills to drive the next wave of innovation – this is the greatest threats to our sector right now” – Otman Benali, EPPRA Ltd. Hence the pressing need to establish an integrated doctoral program, attractive to the very highest quality prospective graduate students worldwide, without delay. Finally the establishment of EXTATIC will meet that need.