The EngD is an alternative to a traditional PhD aimed at students seeking a career in industry. Students spend 75% of their time conducting research directly with a company in addition to receiving advanced-level training from a broad portfolio of technical and business courses. On completion students are awarded the PhD-equivalent EngD. Although EngD students are known as Research Engineers, those entering our EngD programme typically have a background in the physical sciences, mathematics or engineering. The EngD qualification is widely considered to enhance employment prospects and starting salaries compared to a conventional PhD.

The Industrial Doctorate Centre in Optics and Photonics Technologies is a collaboration between optics and photonics researchers at the Universities of St Andrews, Strathclyde, Glasgow and Heriot-Watt. We are sponsored by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and partner companies. The Centre is managed by Heriot-Watt University and Research Engineers graduate from the University where their Academic Supervisor is based.

Research Engineers receive an enhanced stipend of £20,090 plus tuition fees. We fund about 10 new Research Engineers each year and currently have about 45 Research Engineers working on projects ranging from fundamental research aimed at developing company technical capabilities to applied research and development of product prototypes.

Current sponsor companies are located throughout the UK and in some cases abroad. They include AWE, BAE Systems, BCF Design, British Energy, Cascade Technologies, Gooch and Housego, MEMSTAR, NPL, Powerphotonics, Renishaw, Rofin, Rolls-Royce, Roke Manor, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Selex Galileo, ST Microelectronics, Thales, Trumpf and Virtual Interconnect.