SUPA’s Knowledge Exchange (KE) activity is focussed on supporting the generation of impact across SUPA’s seven themes. This includes public and policy engagement as well as economic impact, a set of case studies on SUPA’s KE activity and you can read about SUPA’s various KE mechanisms below.

We provide support for researchers collaborating with industry (particular Scottish SMEs) to engage in Horizon 2020 and other EU funding mechanisms, principally through the Scottish Funding Council’s Pools Engagement in European Research (PEER) Fund. By strategic use of the PEER fund, SUPA has supported a number of proposals and networking activities which have resulted in awards of over €4m total, bringing over £1m into Scotland, roughly split 1:3 university/SME.

University of Glasgow
Kelvin Building, Room 227
University Avenue
Glasgow G12 8QQ

General Enquiries: admin@supa.ac.uk

Operations Manager and Graduate School Coordinator: Dr. Linda Hadfield (linda.hadfield@supa.ac.uk) also at (coordinator@supa.ac.uk)

Webmaster: Sean Farrell (webmaster@supa.ac.uk)

Administration: (supacentral@supa.ac.uk)

• Prof Malcolm Longair (University of Cambridge) Chair of SUPA IAC
• Dr Allan Colquhoun (Leonardo UK)
• Helen Cross (SFC)
• Dr Frank Tooley (Scottish Enterprise)
• Prof Helen Gleeson (University of Leeds)
• Prof Ruth Gregory (King's College London)
• Dr Alex Peden (EPSRC)
• Prof Anneila Sargent (Caltech)
• Dr Richard Burguete (NPL)
• Prof Gillian Wright (UK ATC)
• Prof Andrew Mackenzie (Max Planck Institute)
• Dr Alicia Greated (KTN)

The SUPA Bo

See REF2021: SUPA Research & Training Environment statement

The 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF2014) is a peer assessment of the quality of UK universities' research in all disciplines during the period 2008-2013. Submissions and results can be viewed on the REF2014 website:
http://results.ref.ac.uk/

Feedback from the UoA9/Physics sub-panel states, “There was increasing evidence for pooling of resources in regional groupings, as pioneered during the period of RAE2008 by the Scottish Universities Physics Alliance (SUPA). SUPA has gone from strength to strength and resulted for the first time in a joint submission in Physics (Edinburgh and St Andrews) to an RAE or REF exercise”.

The Doctoral Training Centres (DTCs) receive funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) providing opportunities for students to undertake a PhD or EngD, with specialised training and support for the cohort.  The CDTs are often a collaboration between several universities.

Some of the physics-related Doctoral Training Centres in Scotland include:

• EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Applied Photonics  (Use-Inspired Photonic Sensing and Metrology) 
• EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Algebra, Geometry and Quantum Fields
• EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Quantum Informatics

The Scottish Doctoral Training Centre in Condensed Matter Physics (CM-CDT) was a collaboration between the Universities of Edinburgh, Heriot-Watt and St Andrews providing international-level doctoral training in the core discipline of condensed matter physics. Commencing in 2009 and ending in January 2024.

The UK Astronomy Technology Centre (UK ATC), located at the Royal Observatory Edinburgh on Blackford Hill, has enjoyed a close and productive relationship since the launch of SUPA in 2004. The UK ATC is the national centre for astronomical technology, operated by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC). The UK ATC designs and builds instruments for many of the world's major telescopes, as well as project-managing UK and international collaborations.

The Fraunhofer Centre for Applied Photonics (Fraunhofer CAP) was established in 2012 as the first UK Fraunhofer Research Centre, in collaboration with Fraunhofer IAF, Freiburg and the University of Strathclyde. Fraunhofer CAP offers professional R&D services to industry as a flexible and practical resource that responds to companies’ needs in the development of photonic technologies. Consistent with the Fraunhofer model, training of PhD and EngD students is a fundamental part of our mission.

SUPA has a number of partnerships with other organisations. 

The SUPA Associate Members are aligned closely with the activity across SUPA. 

There are a number of Doctoral Training Centres incorporating physics doctoral students in Scotland. 

The Scottish Universities Summer School in Physics, SUSSP, contributes to the dissemination of advanced knowledge in physics.

SUPA has established relationships and formal agreements with a number of research institutes. These include, the UK Astronomy Technology Centre, home to the  Higgs Innovation Centre, the Fraunhofer Centre for Applied Photonics located within the Strathclyde Technology Innovation Centre in Glasgow; and the National Physical Laboratory headquartered in Teddington with a branch in Glasgow.

SUPA promotes communication and collaboration among physicists in Scotland. Collectively, SUPA forms the largest cluster of physics researchers in the UK.

 The Graduate School (GS) has around 600 PhD students. Over 50 courses, corresponding to over 800 hours of lectures, are delivered annually. 

SUPA is governed by a Board of Directors (BoD) at Vice-Principal level and receives guidance from an International Advisory Committee (IAC).

 The SUPA Executive Committee (EC) contains  representatives from each of the partner universities and the Operations Manager. The Executive Committee concentrates on the strategic direction of SUPA and has strong links to SUSSP and SUPA Associate Members.

SUPA's themes are:  Astronomy & Space Sciences, Condensed Matter & Materials Sciences, Energy, Nuclear Physics, Particle Physics, Photonics, Plasma Physics, Physics & Life Sciences, Physics Education Research and Quantum Technologies.

Each theme has a theme leader. Theme leaders promote collaborative work within their theme.

Each university has a Graduate School Committee member. The Graduate School Committee reviews courses. 

A new feature of the 2016 Gathering was a Student Poster Prize Competition. Each of the eight SUPA partner universities nominated a student to present a poster. The prize, sponsored by Kaiam Corporation (Livingston), was judged by a panel comprising three members of the SUPA International Advisory Committee, Professors Ruth Gregory (U.Durham), Anneila Sargent (CalTech) and Malcom Longair (U.Cambridge). All posters presented were of very high quality and the panel were challenged to choose a winner. 

Andrew MacKeller from the Experimental Quantum Optics and Photonics Group of the University of Strathclyde was declared the winner of the 2016 SUPA Student Poster Competition by Professor Sargent with his poster on “Phase-contrast interferometry: Single-shot, phase insensitive readout of an atom interferometer”. In presenting the Prize to Andrew, Professor Sargent commended the poster for its balance between fundamental physics and state-of-the-art technology with a clarity of presentation that leads the reader through the research and its outcomes.