feature
Published: 23 January 2018

Collaborative PhDs offer industry insight

The Department of Chemical and Process Engineering has launched a collaborative, industry-focused PhD programme with fast-moving consumer goods company Unilever and the Institute of Process Engineering (IPE) at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Science and engineering graduates have a unique opportunity to gain industry experience while studying at doctoral level through the new UNIS (Unilever-IPE-Surrey) collaborative doctoral training programme.

The programme, launched by Surrey’s Department of Chemical and Process Engineering, will offer ten PhD studentships a year until 2021. PhD students will be able to divide their time between the programme partners, spending up to two years at the IPE in Beijing, China, and also working at Unilever’s R&D Centres in China and the UK. They will be jointly supervised by all three partners.

The programme aims to train the next generation of chemical engineers in three key areas: sustainable manufacture; multi-scale modelling; and formulation and product engineering. The first raft of PhDs will address some of the key challenges faced in manufacturing today, such as advancing modelling, simulation, monitoring and control technologies for digital manufacturing of formulated products of foods and personal care.

Professor Charley Wu, who is coordinating the programme at Surrey, commented: “This is a great opportunity for chemical engineers to work with three strong partners and apply their knowledge to real industry challenges in a dynamic environment. They will have access to exceptional facilities within the IPE while drawing on Unilever’s expertise in process engineering and Surrey’s extensive research experience.”

Find out more about our UNIS collaborative doctoral training programme and the PhD studentships offered for 2018 (application deadline 31 March 2018).

Why not explore our programmes in Chemical and Process Engineering, including our Chemical and Process Engineering PhDs.

Share what you've read?