The Industrial Doctorates (DI) Plan celebrates its first ten years of history of promoting the transfer of technology and knowledge between the university and research system and business. A decade of work in which the programme promoted by the Department of Research and Universities has contributed to enhancing knowledge, incorporating and retaining scientific talent, enhancing the competitiveness of Catalan companies, promoting sustained collaboration over time between both environments and generating highly qualified jobs in the country's productive fabric.
The Minister of Research and Universities, Gemma Geis, highlighted the work carried out by the DI Plan over the first decade of operation to "continue to progress towards the most advanced European societies in terms of knowledge transfer indicators, but also to encourage generational change in research and promote the incorporation of young talent from our universities". In addition, the councillor also emphasised the contribution of IDs "to the competitiveness and internationalisation of the Catalan industrial fabric, as well as to the quality training that future doctors obtain within the companies' R+D+I projects".
The IDs are an initiative of the Government of Catalonia launched as a pilot plan in 2012 with the aim of responding to the challenge of knowledge and technology transfer and their application in the country's productive fabric. Aligned with the National Pact for the Knowledge Society (PN@SC), the plan has become a fundamental tool for the valorisation and transfer of technology and knowledge, as an example of collaborative research with an impact on society.
The first decade of operation of the ID Plan presents a balance of more than 800 projects developed in collaboration with more than 600 researchers from our university and research system. A total of 530 companies have taken part, as well as the 12 Catalan universities and up to 25 research centres in the country. Public-private funding for the programme between 2012 and 2022 amounted to €105 million, two thirds of which came from the private sector and one third from the public sector, and this year's call for IDs has increased by €1.5 million to €6 million.
Successful collaborative model
The research model deployed by the Industrial Doctorates Plan is based on research projects that bring together universities, research centres, companies and institutions. Predoctoral researchers carry out the collaborative research project, which will be the subject of their doctoral thesis, as contracted staff of the companies, with a minimum salary of 22,000 euros per year, which facilitates their continuity, once the project and the doctoral thesis have been completed.
In addition, the program seeks to promote collaborative effort in research teams, culminating in results that, on the one hand, are applied directly to the companies involved and, on the other, generate economic activity in the territory and transfer technology and knowledge with an impact on society as a whole.
The funding of the ID Plan is nourished by funds provided by the Department of Research and Universities and by the companies that take part. Those responsible for the Plan of the Department of Research and Universities, as well as the collaborating institutions (AGAUR, Fcri, CSUC), facilitate collaboration between researchers, companies and agents of the knowledge system, facilitating contact between all parties involved and interested. The programme is based on other successful international experiences, with more than 30 years of experience, launched in countries such as France or Denmark, and has an annual call, permanently open, which resolves the selected candidacies four times a year.
From sustainability to quantum computing
In the history of 10 years and more than 800 doctoral projects, the ID Plan has encouraged the transfer between the university and research system and the productive fabric in a wide range of areas of knowledge. Within the framework of the Plan, collaborative research projects have been carried out on vehicle electrification, communications security, e-mobility, 5G technology, agri-food and sustainability, as well as disruptive projects on3D printing of food, CO₂ capture, circular economy, Machine and Deep Learning, artificial intelligence, vegetable proteins or increasing the capacities of disabled people.
Among the companies participating in the most Industrial Doctorate projects are corporations such as SEAT (28 projects in the areas of mobility, customer experience, electric vehicles, etc.), the Reig Jofré pharmaceutical laboratory (13 projects, among others, on vaccination and drug production), Agbar (12 projects focused on aspects such as sustainability or the customs journey) or the technology company Qilimanjaro Quantum Tech (seven projects on computing or quantum algorithms).
The areas of knowledge in the first decade of Industrial Doctorates projects include the social sciences, arts and humanities; health sciences, and the STEM field (science, technology, engineering and mathematics).
Commemoration
The Industrial Doctorates Plan commemorates its 10th anniversary from autumn 2022 with different actions to celebrate this anniversary and highlight the contribution of collaborative research, between companies and universities, to change the world and society.
At the beginning of 2023, a book compiling the ten years of experiences of the ID Plan will be published, through different perspectives and contributions from collaborators. Also during the autumn of this year, the rules of the first edition of the DI Impact Awards 2012-2022 competition will be published, a competition open to both Plan participants and the general public with the aim of identifying current or future challenges in society, and showing the impact generated by an Industrial Doctorate project.
In addition to different actions on social networks, the video Industrial Doctorates, ten years of collaborative research will be produced, which will collect different testimonies from participants of the DI Plan and different collaborations, as well as the results and impacts of the projects. A major final event planned for early 2023 will culminate the commemoration, in which the Impact DI 2012-2022 awards are expected to be presented and professionals of international scientific relevance will participate.
