BB7 and University of Leeds PhD project awarded EPSRC co-funding
BB7 is proud to be supporting a new collaborative PhD project with the University of Leeds, which has been selected for co-funding by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).
For us, this is an exciting step forward in our ongoing commitment to research, innovation and practical progress in fire safety. The project will explore how buildings and bridges can be designed to be safer, more resilient and more sustainable in response to fire-related risks, bringing together academic expertise and real-world industry insight to address challenges that matter across the built environment.
Building on a growing relationship with Leeds
The award builds on our growing relationship with the University of Leeds School of Civil Engineering, following a series of Masters-level research projects focused on similar themes. What started as smaller research collaborations has now developed into a fully funded PhD project, creating a valuable opportunity to take this work further and explore its potential impact in more depth.
Supporting research with practical industry insight
As part of the collaboration, BB7 will provide financial support for the scholarship, alongside in-kind contributions including staff time, software licences, training materials and the potential for secondments. This support will help give the research both academic depth and direct industry relevance.
The project sits at the intersection of several areas that are central to our technical expertise, including CFD modelling, evacuation modelling, structural fire engineering and wider ESG-related considerations. It also speaks to an important industry challenge: how we improve safety and resilience while supporting more sustainable design and construction practices.
Bringing academic expertise and industry experience together
By combining the University of Leeds’ research capability with our technical insight and project experience, the PhD has strong potential to deliver findings that are rigorous, relevant and genuinely useful for the sector.
The next stage will focus on recruiting an outstanding PhD researcher to help drive the work forward. We are proud to support this journey and contribute to research that could help shape future thinking in fire safety, structural design and sustainable engineering practice.
Looking ahead
This award is a proud moment for everyone involved and a clear example of what can happen when academic research and industry experience come together with a shared purpose.
We look forward to seeing the project develop and sharing more as it progresses.