A quarter of a billion pounds is to be invested in training scientists and engineers to tackle the problems Britain faces.

The £250 million of funding, the biggest ever investment of its kind, will be used to create 44 training centres across the UK and produce more than 2,000 PhD students.

As they train, the communities of student researchers will work on solutions to major concerns such as climate change, energy issues, our ageing population and hi-tech crime.

The investment was announced by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), the UK's funding body for science and engineering, which hopes its new centres for doctoral training will quickly become internationally renowned.

It said the centres will tackle subjects as diverse as managing scarce water resources, keeping the UK's aerospace industry competitive and developing artificial organs for patients.

At the Security Science centre at University College London, students will learn how to combat terrorism by developing new technologies, studying human behaviour and exploring how organisations can be vulnerable to both cyber and physical threats.

Centre director Professor Gloria Laycock, who is also director of the UCL Jill Dando Institute of Crime Science, said: "We aim to transform the way security is done."

Elsewhere, researchers at a centre at the University of Reading will work on how to create "zero carbon" buildings - homes and offices with a sustainable approach to energy. And at Cambridge University, students with backgrounds in physics, chemistry and engineering will work on cutting-edge nanotechnology, building tiny machines at an atomic level.

Lord Drayson, Minister for Science and Innovation, said the EPSRC centres would create a "new wave" of scientific minds to carry Britain into a successful future.

"Britain faces many challenges in the 21st Century and needs scientists and engineers with the right skills to find answers to these challenges, build a strong economy and keep us globally competitive," he said. "This is an exciting, innovative approach to training young researchers and will help build a better future for Britain."

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