Erasmus Mundus Doctoral College in Fusion Science
Erasmus Mundus, the European programme which promotes training schemes, launched a new International Doctoral College in Fusion Science and Engineering last month. The college, Fusion DC, has a five million euro support – and is providing 40 doctoral scholarships for work in the field of fusion research, to tackle the varied challenges on the way to conceiving a working fusion power plant.
The college is placing emphasis on an international exchange of experience. During their three years of funded doctoral work, the students in the programme will undertake research at a variety of institutions, spending at least six months abroad in order to make best use of the different research focuses of the institutions involved.
“[The students will] be profiting not only from the financial support, but also from the wide range of topics and experience afforded by the network,” said Jean-Marie Noterdaeme, one of the college organisers.
“For their special research objectives students can, for example, select the most suitable experimental facility and supplement this with theory know-how available elsewhere. Furthermore, they will have the opportunity to become familiar with different science cultures.”
There are eight main partners involved in the college – the universities of Ghent, Lisbon, Madrid, Nancy, Padua and Stuttgart; the fusion centre at Cadarache, France; and the Max Planck Institute of Plasma Physics – which is an Associate Member of the European Physical Society.
In addition, there are a further 20 associated partners – eleven in the European Union, and nine from the various outside member states of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor: China, Japan, Russia and the United States.
For more information, please visit the Fusion DC website.
