The BCFN has strong links with industry and provides opportunities to engage with our partners throughout the PhD, with support from our dedicated Industrial Fellow. BCFN students in the first year will be equipped with skills to allow them to explore how their research might have application beyond academic research in the business arena. This is achieved through our Industrial Training Modules (ITMs) which take place over a 2 day period. Invited Industrial Visiting Lecturers discuss their involvement with research and development, and set challenges for our students, which are explored and the results presented within 48 hours. This real-time, real-world problem solving approach provides a valuable frame of reference to how Nanoscience is employed industrially and allows the students to contextualise information from lectures and THETAs towards solving realistic problems.

On a longer time-scale, the BCFN-Industry Graduate Engagement BCFN-Industry Graduate Engagement (BRIDGE) is a flagship extension of the Industrial training Module that takes advantage of a critical mass of academics and PhD students across the BCFN research network across 17 separate university departments. BRIDGE is a bottom up, training-inspired research activity conducted in close association with an industrial partner. A six-month project is undertaken with input from, and feedback to, the industrial sponsor, with the BCFN cohort operating as a dedicated “think tank”. In previous year this has been focused on the application of fundamental nanoscience to real-world problems leading to new solutions. We are evolving the BRIDGE programme to explore opportunities around spin-out companies.