Details of Award
NERC Reference : NE/N012070/1
Next Generation Unmanned Systems Science (NEXUSS)
Training Grant Award
- Lead Supervisor:
- Professor A Naveira Garabato, University of Southampton, Sch of Ocean and Earth Science
- Grant held at:
- University of Southampton, Sch of Ocean and Earth Science
- Science Area:
- Atmospheric
- Earth
- Freshwater
- Marine
- Terrestrial
- Overall Classification:
- Marine
- ENRIs:
- Biodiversity
- Environmental Risks and Hazards
- Global Change
- Natural Resource Management
- Pollution and Waste
- Science Topics:
- Boundary Layer Meteorology
- Robotics & Autonomy
- Glacial & Cryospheric Systems
- Hydrological Processes
- Ocean - Atmosphere Interact.
- Abstract:
- The NEXUSS Partnership will create a NERC CDT in the use of Smart and Autonomous Observation Systems (SAOS) to tackle major challenges in the environmental sciences where progress requires real-time, continuous, sustained and highresolution observations. NEXUSS PhD students will benefit from the alliance of six leading science and engineering universities (UoS, HWU & UEA) and research organisations (BAS, NOC & SAMS) that are in the vanguard of UK research and training excellence in the development and environmental application of SAOS. These Partners undertake worldleading, multidisciplinary environmental science across the NERC remit, and include the UK's foremost engineers and physical scientists with access to some of the world's best facilities in autonomy, novel platform and sensor development, miniaturisation, and data and image analysis. The Partnership's doctoral training is underpinned by a sustained stream of SAOS experiments across all of Earth's environments, including the most remote and challenging, that is unrivalled in the UK. Our Vision is to develop, deliver and disseminate the world's first environmental science doctoral training programme founded around competitive team Grand Challenges (GCs) that are sponsored fully by industry. Annual GC events will be the centrepiece of the NEXUSS community, in which first-year student teams with mixed skill sets coached by senior student cohorts will design and deploy SAOS technologies and apply rigorous data analysis techniques to address and report on a simulated, real-world environmental problem. The fortnight-long GC finale will entail field trials, competitive field demonstrations, and team presentations of scientific results to a panel of customers. The GC activities and timeline will maximise peer learning and cohort building, and grow and consolidate the set of skills underpinning the end-to-end use of SAOS approaches in a realistic context, with access to world-class, cross-cutting facilities and expertise. In preparation for the GC and individual PhD research projects, each NEXUSS student will engage in a personalised Training and Research Programme combining cohort activities with bespoke specialist training. Cohort events will develop specialist SAOS techniques, environmental science knowledge, teamwork and leadership, and transferrable skills, and will consist of: an eye-opening 10-day Induction event, including an annual, nationally advertised 'SAOS for Environmental Science' Conference; and three week-long, problem-based Foundation Modules to equip students with the core engineering and data analytical skills required to complete the GC and their PhD research. In the two years following the GC, each NEXUSS student will sharpen their integration skills and deepen their discipline knowledge by engaging in structured training of first-year GC student teams, and pursuing an Advanced Skills Training programme. This will develop the student's skills in science communication, formulation of science policy, commercial exploitation of environmental science, and creation of impact through innovation by means of four highly experiential, 2-to3-day workshops; and will address the student's discipline learning needs via pursuit of two of the outstanding portfolio of >100 M-level modules offered by the NEXUSS academic partners. NEXUSS will transform UK environmental science by embedding the application of SAOS approaches across the research landscape. This will be achieved by (i) developing a best practice template for training coming generations of environmental scientists for the mid-21st century, and sharing it across the UK; (ii) delivering a cohort of technology-aware high-flyers who will take forward SAOS approaches during their future employment in science, industry and government; and (iii) stimulating, through our conferences, GC events and innovative PhD research projects, significant high-calibre SAOS technology transfer to environmental disciplines.
- NERC Reference:
- NE/N012070/1
- Grant Stage:
- Awaiting Completion
- Scheme:
- Doctoral Training
- Grant Status:
- Active
- Programme:
- CDT
This training grant award has a total value of £2,803,727
FDAB - Financial Details (Award breakdown by headings)
| Total - Other Costs | Total - Fees | Total - Student Stipend | Total - RTSG |
|---|---|---|---|
| £116,355 | £527,632 | £1,829,741 | £330,000 |
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