By Grant Smith, education reporter

DUNDEE UNIVERSITY has teamed up with two counterparts in an £8 million project to improve research into engineering.

It has formed the Northern Research Partnership (NRP) with Aberdeen and Robert Gordon universities, pooling the talents of hundreds of academics with the aim of responding to increased international competition in the field.

The NRP was launched in Aberdeen yesterday. It is the first time the institutions have agreed to go beyond ad-hoc collaboration towards creating a “critical mass” in research priorities.

Professor Michael Davies, dean of engineering and physical sciences at Dundee, said the NRP was a “very important development”. He said, “The establishment of a strong research presence for engineering and related disciplines in the region, that will compete in research at an international level, will be facilitated greatly by Scottish Funding Council funding that will allow the partner institutions to make key appointments of new senior academic staff.”

The NRP will benefit from work by 135 researchers, 160 research assistants and 286 PhD students. Topics covered include civil engineering, computational systems, energy and clean technology, medical technology and complex systems.

The universities have set up a common graduate school to support and enhance research students’ activities.