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Research and Innovation Events with LIFD

Leeds Institute for Fluid Dynamics provides an exciting, interdisciplinary environment for researchers. We offer a wide programme of seminars, lectures, conferences and training events aimed at both academic and industry audiences including:

  • The LIFD annual lecture
  • Summer schools
  • The LIFD Research Programme
  • The LIFD Colloquia series
  • A diverse range of fluids seminar programmes
  • Industry and end-user engagement events

LIFD aims to work with the international fluids community to provide leading conferences, meetings, workshops and summer schools, and we are keen to discuss proposals to collaborate with LIFD to host events at Leeds.

LIFD Research Programme

The LIFD Research Programme is one of our flagship activities. This two week workshop gathers together leading international experts in a specific area of fluid dynamics in order to discuss key challenges, share new research developments and make progress on the area. This is not a conference in the conventional sense; rather a meeting of minds where ideas can be shared and worked through and new and projects collaborations can be started. We aim to ensure this event involves a diverse group of researchers at all career stages, and (if appropriate) include key industry/user partners. The Programme will have a mixture of lectures on the latest developments in a field, combined with active working group sessions to progress key ideas; we would anticipate that lectures would be open to a wider audience than the Programme participants, particularly early career researchers in fluid dynamics.

We will host the Research Programme at the University of Leeds every 2 years, with participants hosted in the School of Mathematics Visitor Centre. Each Programme will focus on a particular theme in fluid dynamics, with 10-14 international researchers invited to participate. There may also be an associated conference before or after the Programme, for 50-60 attendees. We would like to invite proposals from the fluids community to lead an LIFD Research Programme. The academic leads will design and chair the event, with organisational and promotional support provided by LIFD. We anticipate that funding will be available, up to £10,000, to support the event.

Summer Schools and Conferences

The LIFD summer school is an annual event, focusing on a different area of fluid dynamics each year. Primarily aimed at graduate students, this concentrated one week course aims to develop both core technical knowledge and share the current research advances in the discipline. We anticipate that the summer school will be delivered by experts at Leeds and from other institutions, and will attract up to 30 participants from around the world.

LIFD regularly hosts conferences and symposia across the breadth of fluid dynamics. Our annual CDT fluid symposium is a one day event organised by our EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Fluid Dynamics students covering all aspects of fluid dynamics and featuring invited speakers who are leaders in academia and industry. Our annual LIFD lecture is a showcase of a particular area of fluid dynamics featuring a world renowned keynote speaker. We have hosted a wide range of events over the past few years ranging from special interest group meetings for 30-60 people to large national and international conferences for up to 500 delegates.

Innovation Events

Our innovation facing events aim to build a two-way connection with industry and end-user partners to both inform research direction and ensure that research outcomes have the right impact in the real-world. Events range from research sandpit and workshop meetings to industry facing conferences. Our Study Group challenges offer a focused and interactive way of bringing together industry and academic partners to tackle a challenge together over a period of 2-3 days, developing new solutions and co-creating new projects.

Support for Events

LIFD is able to provide a wide range of support to the organisation of conferences and events, including managing the administration aspects of event organisation and promoting the events through our webpages, social media and mailing list. For smaller events (up to 100 people) we can provide a simple in-house service, while for larger or more prestigious events we draw on the expertise of the dedicated conferencing team at the University of Leeds. Industry events are supported through our flagship innovation centre, Nexus, which provides a hub for business engagement including a state-of-the-art building. In the case of pay-to-attend events such as summer schools and conferences, LIFD provides the financial underwriting to support the event.

About Leeds

Leeds is one of the largest Universities in the UK with over 38,000 students and 8,700 staff. Our students and staff come from more than 170 countries, and we have a global network of alumni. The University of Leeds campus is a great place to host a meeting or conference. We have a range of lecture and meeting rooms, and a dedicated conference team who can support the organisation of larger events. Smaller meetings benefit from the School of Mathematics Research Visitor Centre which can provide office and meeting space for workshops.

The campus is only a 10 minute walk from Leeds city centre, offering a diverse range of social, retail, sporting and cultural activities. The city is well connected: Leeds-Bradford airport has regular connections to European hub airports and we are only 2 hours by train from London. Leeds is within easy reach of the beautiful Yorkshire countryside providing opportunities for a wide range of leisure activities alongside a meeting including outdoor activities, the coast, market towns and the historic city of York.

Find out more

Please contact us at fluids-institute@leeds.ac.uk if you are interested in collaborating on any events with LIFD, or to sign up to receive information about LIFD events.

Information on the University of Leeds conference facilities and organisation is at meetinleeds.co.uk/  and information on Nexus is at nexusleeds.co.uk/