University of Glasgow receives major grant for engineering research

The University of Glasgow has been awarded a share of £85m in new funding for equipment to support pioneering research to improve the efficiency of electronic and optical components. The University's £3Maward from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) was announced by UK Minister for Universities and Science David Willetts at the Global Intelligent Systems conference in London today (Wednesday 17 July). A total of 21 projects led by UK universities, focusing on advanced materials, grid-scale energy storage, and robotics and autonomous systems, will share in the funding. A total of 21 projects led by UK universities, focusing on advanced materials, grid-scale energy storage, and robotics and autonomous systems, will share in the funding. The award will support work undertaken by researchers from the University of Glasgow's College of Science and Engineering in collaboration with the National Physical Laboratory, Oxford Instruments Plasma Technology, the National Microelectronics Institute and Gas Sensing Solutions. The project is developing advanced processes on commercial microand nano-fabrication tools manufactured in the UK by Oxford Instruments Plasma Technology that can be transferred directly into companies for production. The funding will allow the University to purchase new equipment including tools to etch semiconductor materials and deposit electrically insulating layers, techniques used to fabricate high performance electronic and optical devices including transistors, LEDs and lasers .