[2][3] The initial motivation for the establishment of a research programme in large-scale complex IT systems was the publication of a 2004 report[4] by the Royal Academy of Engineering and the British Computer Society.
This report examined the causes of failure of a number of large software projects and made several recommendations for research to address some of these problems.
Subsequently, a further project focusing on cloud computing was approved with Bristol, St Andrews and Aston Universities as partners.
The LSCITS EngD programme[9] is an Engineering Doctorate scheme, coordinated by the University of York[10] that focuses on training and research in complex IT systems.
The key difference between this programme and a conventional PhD is that students spend the majority of their time working with the industrial sponsor and may submit a portfolio thesis, describing several related research projects on a common theme, rather than a single topic.
EngD industrial sponsors include leading multi-national corporations, through to small-to-medium-sized enterprises who wish to build research capability and capacity.