Albert Sangrà Morer, director of the Industrial Doctorates Plan
A few months ago we held the event that closed the 10th anniversary of the Industrial Doctorates Plan. Under the presidency of the Minister of Research and Universities, Joaquim Nadal, it brought together doctors, doctoral students, researchers from universities and research and technology centres, heads of companies and institutions and members of the Administration. In other words, all those actors that play a fundamental role in the development of industrial doctorate projects in our country.
Industrial doctorates are an example of public policy that establishes shared foundations between higher education, research, innovation and companies and institutions to promote the knowledge society, as highlighted by the National Pact for the Knowledge Society. An industrial doctorate thesis project identifies research that is strategic for a company or institution, but it is also a model of knowledge and technology transfer to society, which receives and perceives its impact, as applied research.
Currently, more than 1,000 industrial doctorate projects have been completed, of which 364 theses have already been defended. All Catalan universities and more than half of the CERCA centres have participated, as well as almost 700 companies and institutions of all sizes and natures.
After these first ten years, the Plan begins a new stage in which it wants to give special emphasis to attracting thesis projects that involve the educational, artistic and humanities fields. In the latest call for grants from the Industrial Doctorates Plan, modifications were incorporated to include the school environment and, in general, public administrations as promoters of these projects. Now it is necessary for possible projects to emerge, to become visible.
In this new stage, universities must play a decisive role, getting closer to those areas that have not yet sufficiently discovered the benefits that an industrial doctorate can bring them.
Universities, research and technology centres have been the cornerstone at which industrial doctorates have been consolidated. Without the collaboration and effort of all these institutions of the Catalan research system we would not have reached where we are now. Therefore, also in this new stage, universities must play a decisive role, getting closer to those areas that have not yet sufficiently discovered the benefits that an industrial doctorate can bring them.
They need to approach the school environment, where there is an enormous need to develop talent to investigate and make visible evidence that can inform our education system more and better in the face of the enormous challenges it faces. Also to administrations, which can benefit from this collaborative research to improve their processes and provide services that meet the needs of citizens.
There are still researchers at universities and research centres who believe that industrial doctorates are alien to their research. Nothing could be further from the truth. In recent years, the number of projects in the field of social sciences, arts and humanities has increased by between 6 and 13%, but we have not yet peaked, and we must continue working in this direction. There are many companies and institutions that would be willing to work together with universities to generate lines of research on issues that may be strategic for them. If the research being worked on has a capacity for social and economic impact, it is surely likely to be structured in the form of an industrial doctorate thesis project.
As pointed out in the report The employability of doctors at Catalan universities, prepared by AQU Catalunya, more and more companies and institutions are hiring doctors because they value the talent with which they contribute to their development. Despite this, there are still challenges that should be faced and, therefore, objectives to be achieved in the coming years: the increase in stays in companies and institutions abroad, as a clear indicator of internationalization, and the increase in the presence of women, especially in the role of managers in companies, institutions and thesis directors.
Universities, research and technology centers, companies and institutions are called, in the coming years, to respond to a series of challenges around which the foundations of the research of the present and, above all, of the future are being laid: climate change, renewable energies, biotechnology, artificial intelligence, digital transformation... Encouraging collaborative research in industrial doctorates is a clear commitment to the future that our country and our society need.
