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PhD collaboration and Industrial PhD degree programmes

If you would like to find out whether an academic employee can make a difference for your company, an option could be a collaboration with a PhD student. The 3-year Industrial PhD program is an attractive career option for the student and a unique opportunity for the company to have a research project, tailored to specific needs and challenges, completed.

Why hire an industrial PhD?

The 3-year Industrial PhD program is an attractive career option for the student and a unique opportunity for the company to have a research project, tailored to specific needs and challenges, completed.

Your company gets a candidate who can complete a high-quality research project from which results can lead to commercial gain. Moreover, relations to existing and new contacts in academia will be strengthened.

The industrial PhD will be employed by the company, which receives a supplement the industrial PhD students’ salary by the Innovation Fund Denmark. On top of that, the company can apply for up to DKK 100,000 to participate in conferences, courses and stay abroad. The university tuition fee is also covered by Innovation Fund Denmark.

How do we find a candidate?

  • Reach out to relevant research group at the Department of Computer Science. The researchers can help spot talents, and make recommendations based on your project.
  • Take part in events where you can meet the students, e.g. Kdag.
  • Take part in information meetings arranged by Innovation Fund Denmark where students and companies can meet.
  • Publish the project like you would with any other position at your company.
  • Publish the project in the LinkedIn group: Industrial Researcher – matchmaking.

Application process

To start an industrial PhD project two applications must be created:

  • The potential PhD student should first apply to GSST.
  • The company applies with Innovation Fund Denmark, when the student is accepted by AU/GSST.

There are open for application three times a year. Next deadline is October 9, 2017. It is possible to apply for a project without a candidate, but projects with a candidate will have higher priority.

If the application is approved, Innovation Fund Denmark will give a contribution to the industrial PhD’s salary and up to DKK 100.000 to participate in conferences, courses and stay abroad. The university will receive a subsidy corresponding to the tuition fee. 

Benefits when hiring an industrial PhD

For the company

  • Implementation of the newest research and knowledge tailored to your company’s challenges.
  • Development of new tools and methods for growth and increased market shares.
  • Increased efficiency and quality in existing services.
  • Contacts and network within academia.
  • Image as a research-oriented company.

For the student

  • The possibility to carry out an application-oriented research project.
  • Build a network outside the traditional university sector and gain a career profile that is attractive both inside and outside the university.
  • Attain knowledge and understanding of working within both academia and industry.
  • As a bridge builder between company and university you can contribute to the creation of new research collaboration.

The industrial PhD program offers a good collection of viewpoints on research projects. The academic research ideas are augmented with the commercial perspectives the industrial partners bring to the table. This allows me, as the student, to better contextualize my research and identify directions of research with both academic and commercial aspects. On top of that, the communication between the parties allows me to learn and practice skills within the areas of communication, project planning, and management. 

 

Manuel Ciosici, Industrial PhD at Unsilo


The Industrial PhD program provides the interesting opportunity to conduct research in tight cooperation with a company that has a very concrete interest in turning our research results into actual commercial products or services. This creates a unique opportunity for validating and evaluating our methods and algorithms in the application domain. Working with real challenges, we discover novel promising research directions that make a difference in practice. For the company, the Industrial PhD is a direct connection to current research, both to state-of-the-art methods and results, and to innovations driven by the PhD project itself.    

 

Ira Assent, Associate Professor at Aarhus University
Supervisor for Manuel Ciosici

Contact

Henriette Gammelgaard Farup

Research Group Coordinator Department of Computer Science

Rikke J. Ljungmann

Afsnits-/teamleder Health Administrative Centre - Natural Sciences and Technical Sciences PhD Administration

Anders Møller

Professor, Deputy Head of Department Department of Computer Science