A new Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) in Decarbonisation of the Built Environment at the University of Bath was launched on 29 May by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).

The CDT will receive funding of £3m from the university and industry partners, including BRE Trust, Arup Group Ltd, Expedition Engineering Ltd, Atkins Global and Lhoist.

The centre will be situated within the University’s Department for Architecture and Civil Engineering and housed in a new building, due to open in 2015. It will see between 50 and 100 PhD students completing “game-changing research” into zero and low-carbon building technologies.

The first intake of students will start in October 2014 with the programme led by Professor David Coley who has extensive first-hand experience of combining low-energy building design with usability, designing developments that are fit for purpose well into the future.

The investment complements pre-existing EPSRC CDTs at the University of Bath in Sustainable Chemical Technologies, Digital Entertainment and Statistical Applied Mathematics, as well as three other CDTs in which the University is now partnered with other universities.

Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research, Professor Jane Millar said: “Through the new Centre at Bath, the architects of the future will be equipped with the skills to meet the challenge of designing buildings for a low-carbon future”.