Fellowships are a formally approved leave of absence, either on a full time or part time basis, in order for academic staff to progress research or be involved in large scale projects which would normally be difficult to facilitate due to individual workloads.

Dr Duncan Walker, who recently also won a University Research Informed Teaching Award, will be helping to establish the new £14m National Centre of Excellence in Gas Turbine Combustion System Aerodynamics.

The Centre (CAD image at top of page) is due to come on line in early 2018 and will position Loughborough University as a primary UK hub for aerospace engineering and technology.

Focusing on the development of future low emission aerospace combustion systems, the centre will not only build on the existing relationship between Loughborough University and Rolls-Royce (RR) but also allow new industrial partners to work closely with academic researchers to ensure that new technologies are translated from theory to practice as quickly and as efficiently as possible.

The centre will include new laboratory and office space, which will sit alongside the existing Unsteady Fluid Mechanics Laboratory – part of the Loughborough-based Rolls-Royce University Technology Centre (UTC).The new centre is being funded through a partnership of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, the Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI) and Innovate UK.

there is a significant amount of work required to bring the centre on line and to realise its full potential. This work will fall to an existing small number of key members of the RR-UTC (including Dr Walker). With 20 years’ experience of running experimental research projects within the UTC Dr Walker is ideally placed to support this exciting development.