With significant investment from UK Governments and private capital sources to accelerate technical and engineering innovations, the UK is viewed as the world leader in the fusion energy sector.

Investment by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) provides CDTs to develop science leaders for the fusion sector, however the Fusion Engineering CDT is directly funded by the UK Atomic Energy Authority, to ensure the UK has the highly skilled engineering leaders for the UKs first fusion energy power plant at the STEP (Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production) facility.

Our training and research will develop STEM graduates into engineering leaders to design, build, safely operate, maintain and eventually decommission fusion power plants.

In early 2025 the Fusion Engineering CDT was awarded £9.5M in funding by Fusion Opportunities Skills Training Education Research (FOSTER) at the UK Atomic Energy Authority, to recruit 4 cohorts of students into our four Hub universities at Manchester, Liverpool, Sheffield and Birmingham from September 2025. Each cohort will comprise approximately 35 students working in PhD and EngD projects across all the disiplines of fusion engineering.

We also operate a community studentships scheme to widen participation in the Centre across all UK universities.