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Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference: EP/C541715/1
Title: Unifying approaches to design of experiments
Principal Investigator: Gilmour, Professor S
Other Investigators:
Bogacka, Dr B Bailey, Professor RA
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:
Department: Sch of Mathematical Sciences
Organisation: Queen Mary University of London
Scheme: Standard Research (Pre-FEC)
Starts: 01 September 2005 Ends: 31 January 2010 Value (£): 473,103
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:
Statistics & Appl. Probability
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:
No relevance to Underpinning Sectors
Related Grants:
Panel History:  
Summary on Grant Application Form
Experiments are carried out in many different industries, as well as in medical, agricultural and scientific research, in order to base decisions on reliable evidence. It is vital that the experiments are run in such a way that they produce data that are able to unambiguously answer the questions the researchers are interested in. It is also economically important that they produce the required information with the smallest possible expenditure of resources. The design of experiments is the scientific study of methods for running experiments efficiently. From its origins in agricultural research in the 1920s, the design of experiments has spread to cover applications in biology, psychology, medicine, industry, engineering and genetics. Because of the different nature of experiments carried out in these fields, they tend to emphasise different methodologies and this has led to the fragmentation of the subject.The theory of the design of experiments involves statistical principles, various mathematical techniques and substantial computing, as well as knowledge of the types of application being considered. Research in the design of experiments has also fragmented along methodological lines, with workers in one area often being unaware of the mathematical and computing tools used in the other areas. This has now reached the stage where even some of the fundamental underlying principles of the subject are ignored in some areas of research in the design of experiments.This project aims to unify the diverse approaches to the subject. This will emphasise the common principles, enable different parts of the subject to benefit from each other and ensure that common techniques are not continually reinvented for different applications. This will be done by carrying out research on some specific problems that require a combination of techniques from different areas of the design of experiments. These include techniques applicable to experiments in food science, the chemical industry, biology, manufacturing industry, electronic engineering, animal science and psychologyThe benefits of the project to experimenters will be, in the short term, improved methods for designing experiments in these specific areas, which will enable cost savings to be made and more reliable conclusions to be drawn. In the longer term, the unification of the subject should have major benefits by ensuring that future researchers pay more attention to all of the principles of design and not just those that are most emphasised in a specific application.
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