Albert Sangrà Morer, director of the Industrial Doctorates Plan
A few months ago we celebrated the event that closed the 10th anniversary of the Industrial Doctorates Plan. Under the presidency of the Minister of Research and Universities, Joaquim Nadal, there gathered doctors, doctoral students, researchers from universities and research and technological centers, managers of companies and institutions and members of the administration In other words, all those actors who 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 bases between the environment of 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 PhD thesis project identifies research that is strategic for a company or institution, but is also a model of knowledge and technology transfer towards 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 centers have participated, as well as almost 700 companies and institutions, of all sizes and types.
After these first ten years, the Plan begins a new stage in which it wants to give special emphasis to the recruitment of thesis projects involving the educational, artistic and humanities fields. In the last call for grants from the Industrial Doctorate Plan, modifications were incorporated to include the school sector and, in general, public administrations as driving entities for these projects. Now it is necessary for the possible projects to emerge, to become visible.
In this new stage, universities must play a decisive role, getting closer to areas that have not yet sufficiently discovered the benefits that an industrial doctorate can bring them.
Universities and research and technological centers have been the haystack on 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. For this reason, also in this new stage, universities must play a decisive role, getting closer to areas that have not yet sufficiently discovered the benefits that an industrial doctorate can bring them.
They need to approach the school environment, in which there is a huge need to develop talent to investigate and make visible evidence that can inform our educational system more and better in the face of the enormous challenges that arise there. Also to the administrations, who can benefit from this collaborative research to improve their processes and provide services that meet the needs of citizens.
There are still researchers and researchers in universities and research centers who believe that the industrial doctorate is alien to their research. Nothing could be further from the truth. In recent years, the number of projects coming from the field of social sciences, arts and humanities has increased between 6 and 13%, but we have not reached the ceiling yet, and we need to continue working on this address 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 to them. If the research you are working on has the potential to have a social and economic impact, it is certainly likely to be structured in the form of an industrial doctoral thesis project.
As pointed out in the report The employment of doctors from Catalan universities , prepared by AQU Catalunya , more and more companies and institutions hire doctors because they value the talent with which they contribute to their development. Despite this, there are still challenges that must be faced and, therefore, objectives that must 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 departments.
Universities, research and technological centers, companies and institutions are called upon, in the coming years, to respond to a series of challenges around which the foundations of present and, above all, future research are being laid: climate change, renewable energies, biotechnology, artificial intelligence, digital transformation... Stimulating the collaborative research of industrial doctorates is a clear bet for the future that our country and our society need.
