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Superconductivity: Enabling Transformative Technologies is no longer accepting new applications.
Teaching
The CDT will adopt an integrated 4-year programme, with training running alongside the research project. Students will work on a specific research project with a primary supervisor from the start. This will give them focus and inform and guide their choices for training, particularly in their first year.
First year programme
The student experience will begin with the annual CDT conference, in which students from across all years and institutions will meet together with academic staff, industry leaders, external experts, and others. This will engage and ground the whole cohort with the wide subject area of the CDT and bond them socially. Attendance by first-year students is recommended but not compulsory.
All first-year students are expected to attend a week-long Residential School at the University of Bristol from 22 September 2025. The Residential School will bring together first-year students from the whole cohort for in-person lectures, practical training and cohort building group activities.
From there the first-year students will return to their home university to begin the taught and research activities of the first year of the CDT, which will encompass broad training in the science and techniques essential for cutting-edge research in superconductivity. Students will be registered on a PhD programme in their home university with the first year being organised around 6 blocks (B1-6 below) which are:
- A Research Project
- Lecture based course in the superconductivity area
- Practical Techniques Training Modules
- Research Frontier Colloquia
- Group Research Project
- One mini-project with partner institution
Throughout the first year we will arrange additional training sessions in important skills which will be relevant throughout the student’s career. Although these will be offered at first to the year-one students, students from higher years will be encouraged to attend again to sharpen their skills and absorb more fully the content once they have first-hand experience of the issues being addressed. Sessions will focus on:
- writing scientific papers,
- the art of giving engaging presentations,
- working in a team/good communication
- time management.
There will also be training in culture and ethos through courses on Responsible Research and Innovation, Ethics and Integrity and Environmental Sustainability.
Parts of the first-year training take place in the University of Bristol or the University of Oxford. Each training session at these locations will last no more than one week.
In Years 2-4 the students continue with the research project forming the basis of their PhD theses. This will be run alongside non-assessed activities as outreach, peer-to-peer mentoring, business and entrepreneurial skills modules, research frontiers colloquia, workshop meetings and CDT conferences.
| One to one supervision | The °Ç¸ç³Ô¹Ï publishes an annual which sets out the University’s expectations regarding supervision. For the initial training and project selection period, all students are assigned one of the Course Directors as a Principal Supervisor, who will oversee the allocation of supervision for individual students’ projects. During the PhD phase, the supervisory team consists of the principal supervisor (normally referred to as the supervisor), a secondary supervisor from a different department or discipline, and an academic adviser. |
|---|---|
| Lectures | The CDT offer around 12 structured postgraduate-level lecture courses that lead the students through the many aspects of superconductivity research from the fundamental theory, via the science of material design, to the application. The lecture courses will follow a modular structure, comprising five lectures per course. Students will be required to complete eight courses during the first year. |
| Practicals | Practicals are designed to introduce the laboratory and computational techniques used in superconductivity research. In the first year, students choose 8 out of 20 offered practical training modules. Training in each of the modules takes two days. |
| Taught/Research Balance | Predominantly Research |
Placements
A 6-week mini-project with a partner institution is available during the first year of study. Additional partner placements may be organised after the first year, as appropriate for the research project.
Feedback
Students are provided formative feedback as part of the training activities taken during the year.
Reports for the research projects are assessed by an independent reviewer in addition to the project supervisor, and their combined feedback is shared with the student after moderation by the Course Coordinator.
Feedback is also provided as part of the ‘first-year’ assessment exercise, which involves submission of a report followed by a viva. This critical checkpoint establishes each project’s viability and each student’s ability to complete the PhD successfully. Students are also provided written feedback through termly reports on the CamSIS system.
In addition to the above, student feedback and discussion will be solicited on a regular basis, including an ‘open door’ policy, inviting feedback at any time in any form to Course Directors and the Course Administrator, plus during the external advisory board review where board members explicitly invite open, frank discussions on student experiences without the presence of the course organisers.
One student representative will be elected by the student body per cohort, to represent student concerns, in discussion with the programme director and course organiser, as well as acting as representatives during course management committees.
Assessment
Thesis / Dissertation
The final PhD assessment will be of a submitted thesis and subsequent oral examination. The length and format of the thesis will be determined by the requirements of the department in which the student is registered for the PhD.
Other
All PhD students are probationary in the first year and progression to the second year (and registration for the PhD) depends on a successful first-year review. The review will require submission of a report, the form of which depends on the department in which the student is registered, and an oral assessment.
