News
Dr Dan Lester shortlisted for the Papin Prize
Dr. Daniel Lester, manager of the Polymer Characterisation RTP, has been shortlisted for a Papin Prize, the national awards recognising excellence in academia. He is one of 6 nominees in the brand-new category of Contribution to Knowledge Exchange, the category aiming to honour a member of technical staff who has made a significant contribution to delivering knowledge exchange and innovation activities on behalf of their institution.
T Level Placements at Warwick University
In April, the University of Warwick began piloting T-Level student industrial placements. This Institution is among the first in the country to host such a scheme. Paul Johnson and Zac Parkinson, Technical Managers at Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG), engaged with Warwickshire College Group and set up a T-Level placement programme to sit alongside their current technical apprenticeship programme.
New £5.5m national Institute of Technical Skills and Strategy to support UK’s bid to be a global research and innovation superpower
A new £5.5 million national institute is to be launched to ensure that the UK has the technical capability and capacity across academia, research, education, and innovation to enable the UK to be a global superpower in science, engineering, and the creative industries.
The UK Institute of Technical Skills and Strategy (ITSS) is funded by Research England, which is part of UK Research and Innovation. It is being hosted by the University of Nottingham in partnership with a network of organisations and institutions across UK higher education and research, including the University of Warwick.
Technical professionals enable research and innovation in our universities and institutes and build, maintain and enable the use of the UK’s research infrastructure. Despite their critical contributions to UK R&D and HE, technical roles have experienced a lack of visibility, recognition and career development. Career pathways and professional development (PD) can be poor, and an aging workforce means that large numbers of skilled technicians are retiring.
The new institute will focus on technical skills, roles and careers, and their contributions to the economy and how the technical talent and know-how required to fulfil the government’s ambitions for the UK to become an innovation nation can be delivered.