Queen Mary University of London awarded £7m to work on future science and technology for the electromagnetic environment

The funds are to create and sustain The Electromagnetic Environment (EME) Hub on the future electromagnetic environment, which is academic-led and industry-engaged.

Along with Queen Mary, the consortium includes the University of Glasgow, Leeds University, Loughborough University, and Queen’s University Belfast with an extensive list of industrial partners such as Kromek Group, the National Physical Laboratory and QinetiQ.

The University of Loughborough will lead the highly collaborative EME Hub, with its scientific and engineering objectives to achieve rapid impacts. This will be built on excellence in research within the universities with their industrial partners.

Dr Akram Alomainy said: ‘We are five like-minded but complementary universities with a strong track record of developing new technologies in this field. The vision of the team is to create an internationally leading centre for electromagnetic sciences, driven and steered by community needs locally and internationally, for the short, medium and long term.”

Training and development are also on the hub’s agenda, with a focus on advancing the talent and specialist skills needed to meet the demands of ever-evolving research and science in electromagnetics for various applications in the UK but also globally. The hub’s initial operating capability includes five post-doctoral researcher positions, a hub management team, and at least 17 PhD students of which nine are directly funded.

Dr Alomainy added: “The hub will allow us to translate state of the art research conducted in our facilities here at Queen Mary, building novel, original concepts and ideas that are informed by research. We are excited to work with our consortium partners to ensure the EME Hub is sustained to innovate for the long term.”