Conference on the industrial doctorates in the agrifood industry

29/05/2014

On 29 May, the headquarters of the Institute for Catalan Studies hosted the technical conference ‘Industrial Doctorates in the Agrifood Industry’, organised by the Agrifood Innovation Service and the Agency for Management of University and Research Grants as part of the Catalan Strategic Agrifood Research, Innovation and Transfer Plan and within the Annual Technology Transfer Plan (PATT) programme of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries, Food and Natural Environment (DAAM), with the aim of publicising the Industrial Doctorates programme in the Catalan agriculture industry.

This programme is an instrument for knowledge transfer and innovation for industry, through which doctoral students undertake research projects in companies.

The Industrial Doctorates Plan is an initiative by the Catalan Government, in conjunction with public and private universities, which aims to contribute to the competitiveness and internationalisation of Catalan industry, retain talent and place doctoral students in companies where they can develop R&D&I projects, involving the company, university, doctoral students and the Government of Catalonia.

The conference was presented by the Director General for Universities of the Ministry of Economy and Knowledge, Lluís Jofre, and the Deputy Director General for Agrifood Transfer and Innovation of the DAAM, Jaume Sió. The talk on the Industrial Doctorates programme was given by the AGAUR Project Manager, Susaina Figuera.

After a networking session, to facilitate contact between companies and universities, the industrial doctorate project at the company Natural Machines was presented as a success story.

The conference ended with the participation of different research groups, who briefly presented their lines of work.