£11 million funding boost for top research teams

Two top research teams at the University of Southampton have this week secured a funding boost worth over £11 million between them. The two research groups, working in NanoPhotonics and Photonics, were among six groups nationwide to receive long-term funding support under the Portfolio Partnerships initiative launched by Lord Sainsbury.

Southampton is the only university to receive two of the new batch of Portfolio Partnerships, securing over half the £22 million funding awarded in this round.

Portfolio Partnerships have been introduced by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) to provide long-term support to top research teams with a proven track record of achievement and sustained support from EPSRC. Stable funding allows teams to innovate, explore new directions in research and provides increased opportunities to establish collaborations with others.

University Vice-Chancellor, Professor Bill Wakeham, signed the partnership agreements on behalf of the University this week. He commented: ’For Southampton to be awarded two Portfolio Partnerships is excellent news. To receive one would be impressive-to be awarded two is exceptional. This recognises the sustained high quality of research groups in both engineering and physical sciences at Southampton and the high value placed on their research by the funding body.’

The Portfolio Partnership in Photonics, which is led by Professor David Payne, Director of the University’s Optoelectronics Research Centre, is worth £7.2 million over five years. Professor Payne commented: ’From the day the first lasers dazzled laboratories worldwide and the first hair-thin threads of glass were drawn into optical fibres, researchers at the University of Southampton have been at the forefront of global progress in photonics. ’Today, with a team of over 180 researchers and support staff behind it, our Portfolio Partnership based within the Optoelectronics Research Centre is poised to carry on surfing these light waves into the future. ’This research will lead to a new generation of photonic devices having unprecedented performance and functionality which will change our lives and expand our opportunities as much, if not more dramatically, than the first laser a generation ago.’

Professors Nikolay Zheludev and Jeremy Baumberg of the University’s School of Physics and Astronomy have established a Portfolio Partnership in NanoPhotonics. The £4.0 million supports research for the next five years in this new field. Professor Baumberg commented: ’NanoPhotonics emerges when we force light to interact with chunks of artificially engineered matter only billionths of a metre across. ’Handling such ultra-small devices requires a committed interdisciplinary team involving physics, chemistry and electronics, which is world-leading at the University of Southampton.

Professor Zheludev, Co-ordinator of the NanoPhotonics portfolio, adds: ’NanoPhotonics promises captivating new fundamental physics, and new mind-blowing applications in low power, ultra-small devices performing at the quantum edge in a wide range of technologies from information processing, to defence, security, medicine and biotechnologies. Our broad goals are to develop concepts of optical functionality on the smallest possible size scale, at the lowest possible energy level, and on the shortest possible timescale.’

The Portfolio Partnership scheme was launched in April 2003 with the announcement of eight pilot Portfolio Partnerships with a combined value of £28 million. Building on the scheme’s success, the six new Portfolio Partnerships launched this week have been funded with a total value of £22 million.

The six new Portfolio Partnerships are:

• NanoPhotonics Portfolio Partnership (University of Southampton)
• Portfolio Partnership in Photonics (University of Southampton)
• Novel Quantum Order in Interacting Electron Metals (University of Bristol, University of Cambridge and University of St Andrews)
• Portfolio Partnership in Complex Fluids and Complex Flows (University of Wales Swansea and University of Wales, Aberystwyth)
• Portfolio Partnership on Modelling of Transport and Dynamics in Mesoscale Systems (Lancaster University)
• Complex Material Discovery (University of Liverpool)