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For Collaborating Companies

An Industrial PhD is an industrially focused research project and PhD education, which is carried out in a collaboration between a company, an Industrial PhD student and a university.
 

What to gain from entering into an Industrial PhD project?

  • The company gets an Industrial PhD student who is able to carry out a high quality research project and create results that can lead to commercial gain. At the same time, the company strengthens its relations to existing and new collaboration partners at the university.

  • The project allows the Industrial PhD student to carry out a research project where results are applied in an enterprise setting.

  • The university strengthens its relations with the business sector and a foundation for new research is created.


Create commercial value through knowledge, growth and research

An Industrial PhD is an interesting possibility for a company to create commercial value through knowledge, growth and research. The Industrial PhD student, a main supervisor from Aarhus University and a company can jointly conduct research based on the company’s needs and wants. This is a unique possibility to get in-depth knowledge that the company can benefit directly from and lead to commercial gain.

Financing and expenses

Innovation Fund Denmark (Innovationsfonden) finances up to DKK 17,000 per month of the Industrial PhD student’s salary during the 3 years’ PhD study, but no more than 50 pct. of the total salary. Furthermore, the company also has DKK 100,000 at their disposal for the Industrial PhD student’s expenses in connection with the Industrial PhD student’s research environment change and participation in conferences and PhD courses. Up to DKK 5,000 of the DKK 100,000 can be used for the company supervisor’s project-relevant travel expenses. Another DKK 5,000 can be used for the university supervisor’s project-relevant travel expenses.

The company must pay all other expenses for the project, including equipment, materials and data collection. This also includes personal equipment for the Industrial PhD student, e.g. laptop, mobile phone, etc.

An Industrial PhD student is employed in the company and enrolled at the university (in this case the Graduate School of Natural Sciences/GSNS at Aarhus University). The Industrial PhD student shares his/her working time equally between the company and the university and spends all the working time on the Industrial PhD project.

 

Application process

The company formally applies to Innovation Fund Denmark, and the candidate formally applies to GSNS.

For more information on Innovation Fund Denmark’s application deadlines and guidelines, please visit their website (in Danish or in English). Please note that GSNS regulations require that the applicant must have a conditional approval from GSNS before the company submits an application to Innovation Fund Denmark. For more information, contact GSNS.

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