Developing the MIDAS Team

Building UK expertise and developing future leaders

MIDAS Team grows stronger as we welcome new members

MIDAS began with a large academic team boasting a strong and diverse portfolio of research areas between them. A strong academic team, however, is incomplete without the postdoctoral research associates (PDRAs) and PhD students who will be at the heart of the day-to-day research of the programme. While academics bring leadership, domain expertise, and research excellence to the team, it is our earlier career researchers who will bring fresh ideas to MIDAS, able to focus on specific issues in detail, and become experts in emerging methodologies and novel techniques through hands-on experience.

Therefore, since launching just over one year ago, the MIDAS team has grown in both size and capacity through the direct recruitment and formal affiliation of over twenty PDRAs and PhD students. These researchers have all become key members MIDAS, and you can read about them and their projects on our Team page.

Included in the group are students from beyond MIDAS’s four core institutions. The involvement of them and their respective supervisors formalises links with partner institutions, brings further members into the MIDAS team, and helps us in our ambition to grow a long-term and sustainable community with wide-ranging expertise in all aspects of fuel cladding materials research.

Wider training and development is a critical element of what we hope to help deliver in MIDAS, and so the vast majority of our PhDs are recruited and trained in conjunction with a number of Centres for Doctoral Training, including Advanced Metallic Systems, the Fusion CDT, GREEN, and the Nuclear Energy Futures CDT. Alongside this, we will also be delivering MIDAS-specific training options, with a particular focus on developing the research skills and confidence of all group members as they progress through their studies and careers.

Even prior to MIDAS, the team had an excellent track record of alumni progression into both academia and industry, and many former members continue to work with the group now, as part of their current roles, holding a range of research, technical and management positions in the UK and globally. Through MIDAS we hope to yet further enhance opportunities for our PhD researchers and PDRAs, as they make important decisions about their futures careers.

There are a number of further PDRA positions to be advertised as part of MIDAS, and new PhDs will begin throughout the five-year programme, with five new students confirmed to be joining the group this September across all institutions. If you are interested in joining the team, all PDRA positions will be advertised on jobs.ac.uk, PhDs will be advertised via the above CDTs, or you can get in touch with us directly to inquire about current opportunities.