A High‑Impact, Low‑Cost Investment for Industry
The Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) in Compound Semiconductor Manufacturing brings together world‑leading academic expertise, national research facilities, and industry‑focused training to address the most pressing challenges facing the compound semiconductor sector.
By partnering with the CDT, your organisation gains access to highly skilled researchers, cutting‑edge research capability, and a long‑term talent pipeline—at a fraction of the true cost of delivery.
Exceptional Return on Investment
Industry contribution:
£16,667 per year for three years
Leverage:
Approximately £100,000 per student provided through EPSRC and university investment.
For a modest annual commitment, industry partners benefit from a heavily subsidised doctoral programme that delivers strategic value well beyond the cash contribution. R &D Tax Credits can also be claimed on investment.
This represents an outstanding return on investment when compared with the true costs of equivalent in‑house or contract R&D activity.
What Industry Partners Receive
1. Maximum Impact for Minimal Cost
The full cost of training a doctoral researcher—covering stipend, tuition fees, specialist training, facilities, and supervision—amounts to around £150k. The CDT, via an EPSRC grant, and the participating universities contribute c £100k of that.
Your organisation contributes only a small proportion of this cost, while benefiting from the full research results of the participating student.
2. Influence Research Direction and Skills Development
Industry partners help shape project direction to ensure they address their own manufacturing challenges and future technology needs.
This ensures CDT researchers develop:
- Industry‑relevant technical skills
- A strong understanding of manufacturing environments
- Professional and translational skills needed for commercial impact
Graduates emerge better prepared to contribute from day one.
3. Access to World‑Leading Expertise and Facilities
Partners engage with:
- World-leading researchers in materials, devices, and manufacturing
- Advanced fabrication, characterisation, and modelling facilities
- A cohort of doctoral researchers tackling shared challenges, and the opportunity to engage in their training programme and promote your industry.
This provides insight into emerging research directions and access to expertise that would be costly to replicate independently.
4. A Proven Talent Pipeline
Many partners use the CDT as a direct recruitment pathway. Working with doctoral researchers throughout their projects allows companies to:
- Identify high‑potential future employees early
- Build long‑term capability in critical technical areas
- Introduce highly trained staff to your organisation
5. Low Risk, High Strategic Value
The CDT model spreads financial and technical risk while enabling long‑term engagement with doctoral‑level research.
It offers:
- A cost‑effective alternative to standalone PhD sponsorship
- Strategic engagement without the overhead of managing a full research programme
- Long‑term skills and knowledge development for the UK compound semiconductor sector
Get Involved
Partner with the CDT in Compound Semiconductor Manufacturing and invest in the future of your sector—at a cost that represents one of the best value propositions in doctoral‑level research and training.
Contact the CDT team to discuss partnership opportunities
Q & A on Industrial Funding
Does the project have to be funded?
All projects must have relevance to manufacturing, as this is the focus of the CDT, and all projects must have an industry partner.
Most of our projects have industry funding. The Management Board prioritises projects with industrial funding. Other proposals will be considered, but industrially funded projects will be allocated ahead of those that are not.
Note also that most students are seeking a project with strong industry links; in the post-selection survey, 85% said that they would have chosen an industrially funded project even if they had not been required to do so.
If you have not yet identified an academic to work with, the CDT, the Industrial Interface Director or your University representative may be able to help you to do so.
When is the last date to confirm industry funding?
In order that students can make an informed decision, we ask that you provide confirmation of industrial funding not later than 30 November so that this can be highlighted in the Project Catalogue.
How much cash does the company need to provide?
The minimum amount requested from an industry partner is one-third of a four-year studentship. At this stage, the amount is the projected four-year studentship costs, as we do not know the annual UKRI stipend and fees increase for the final three years of the studentship for Cohort 7. The projection is based on known costs for 2026-7 and inflationary predictions for the remaining three years.
The cost of a four-year studentship is therefore currently projected to be approx. £149,988 which means an estimated minimum contribution of £49,996 for students starting in Oct 2026 (with their PhD starting in October 2027). Please note that, as this is the estimated cost of a four-year (1+3) studentship, it may change slightly with inflationary pressures when UKRI announce stipends and fees for the remaining study period.
This sum is payable over the three years of the PhD project, beginning in October 2027, or by a single payment in 2027. Payment terms can be negotiated: initial lump sum, 3 annual instalments, 6 six-monthly instalments or 12 quarterly instalments. The balance may be adjusted in the final year to ensure that the industry partner contributes one-third of the studentship cost. To reduce industry exposure to risk, any inflationary rises will be capped at 15% of the estimated cost above.
This is for a standard studentship; if the project costs exceed £20,000 in total, or there are additional costs of a placement (such as accommodation or travel to the site), the company will be asked to cover these unless you have another source of funds.
These sums are similar to industrial CASE studentships where the company must provide a top-up of a minimum of one third of the EPSRC funding.
Research Studentship funding qualifies for R&D Tax credits when undertaken via a Contract with a University (Sub-contractor costs). As explained in the box below (source: www.Gov.uk website) this allows companies to deduct an extra 86% of their qualifying costs from their yearly profit, as well as the normal 100% deduction, to make a total of 186% deduction.
| Tax Relief on Research Research and Development (R&D) tax relief supports companies that work on innovative projects where those projects seek an advance in science or technology. Enhanced intensive support and the merged scheme The merged scheme R&D expenditure credit (RDEC) and enhanced R&D intensive support (ERIS) replace the old RDEC and small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) schemes. For expenditure under the merged RDEC scheme, the rate of R&D expenditure credit is 20%. Enhanced intensive support allows loss-making R&D intensive SMEs to: – deduct an extra 86% of their qualifying costs in calculating their adjusted trading loss, as well as the 100% deduction which already appears in the accounts (or in the computations as a result of s1308 CTA 2009), to make a total of 186% deduction – claim a payable tax credit, which is not liable to tax and is worth up to 14.5% of the surrenderable loss |
Can two companies jointly fund a student?
Normally, the project should be funded by one company. However, if two small companies wish to co-fund a student, the Management Board will consider such proposals. The companies must be in agreement about the aims of the project and the assignment of intellectual property arising; these should be discussed well in advance to ensure that all material issues are agreed before a student is allocated to the project.
Does the Company have to be based in the UK?
No, this is not a requirement of EPSRC. If the student is to spend some time with the company outside of the UK, however, then the additional travel/subsistence costs will need to be considered when planning the budget and the Company may need to cover these costs. There may also be additional complexity around Export Controls, intellectual property and the studentship agreement, which again should be considered well in advance of a student being allocated to the project.
Will we need an Export Control License?
Export controls may apply if elements of the PhD program involve the sharing of materials or information with entities outside the UK. In a research context, export controls are most likely to apply to collaborative scientific or technical research with a potential military or security-related application. You should therefore explore export controls at an early stage if you think your project falls into these categories. Where applicable, researchers need to apply for an Export Control Licence to transfer controlled goods, technology, software or knowledge outside of the UK.
Academic researchers involved in UK based projects, that relate to one of the 17 sensitive areas of the economy (as defined by the National Security and Investment Act 2021) will liaise with their university’s Research Governance teams for guidance on the management of sensitive research items.
You are advised to review the information on this page, if you consider that export controls may apply and discuss with your academic partner in the project.
How is the student selected for the project?
The Lead Supervisor and the Industrial Supervisor will interview the students who have expressed an interest in the project and will indicate whether the students are appointable. Management Board receives these recommendations and allocates students to the projects, taking into consideration the balance of students at each University, which is fixed by the CDT agreements.
What if the project is not selected by any student or the Management Board does not allocate a student to the project?
The project can be carried forward for the following year’s intake. You will be asked to confirm that, where relevant, you wish to do this.
What happens after an industrially funded project is confirmed?
The CDT Office will inform the Home University’s contracts office of the funding and will work with you to develop a studentship agreement, as soon as possible and before the start of the PhD project.