The Industrial Doctoral School for Research and Innovation creates a valuable network linking Umeå University with the private and public sectors. We work actively to create new collaborations and to realise project ideas for collaborative projects.
The Industrial Doctoral School is based on doctoral students who work for four years on an issue that requires exploration, in a collaboration between Umeå University and an external party such as a business, public authority or non-governmental organisation. Each doctoral student is supervised by one of the university’s researchers and mentored by an employee of the external party.
The Industrial Doctoral School supports project proposals from all of the university’s disciplinary research domains. Projects are funded by the university and the external party, with Umeå University bearing at least 50% of the costs of the doctoral student’s salary and expenses.
Doctoral students are members of an interdisciplinary research group and study a tailored programme of courses, as well as having the opportunity to undertake placements with the external organisation.
The Industrial Doctoral School’s mission is to:
increase interaction between the university and society at large in both the public and private sectors.
Tailor a third-cycle programme that prepares the doctoral student for professional practice with increased collaboration within and outside academia.
Develop and take full advantage of research projects that combine a high level of scientific quality with significant societal benefits; increase collaboration between the university and businesses, the public sector and non-profit organisations.
Deepen relationships with the companies and organisations that take part in the Industrial Doctoral School.
Initiate new relationships between strategic areas of research and companies and organisations.
Organization
The Industrial Doctoral School is managed by a steering committee and is organizationally placed under the Faculty of Science and Technology. The chair of the steering committee is the Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Innovation and Collaboration and its members are representatives of teaching staff from the university’s four faculties, as well as three representatives of external public and private-sector stakeholders.
Professor Patrik Rydén has been the Director of the Industrial Doctoral School since 2020.
Steering group
President:
Dieter Müller, Deputy Vice-Chancellor at Umeå University
Teacher representatives:
Jonas Nilsson, Research fellow at the Department of Radiation Sciences, Faculty of Medicine
Torkel Molin, Associate professor at the Department of Culture and Media Studies, Faculty of Arts
Jessika Wide, Associate professor at the Department of Political Science, Faculty of Social Sciences
Mats Tysklind, professor at the Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science and Technology
External representatives:
Åsa Fällman, Deputy head of business development, Umeå kommun
Anders Hjalmarsson, CEO, Västerbottens Handelskammare
Ingrid Undén Lindehell, Head of HR, Vakin
Co-opted members:
Patrik Rydén, professor, Director of the Industrial Doctoral School at Umeå University
Åsa Boily, Head of faculty office at the Faculty of Science and Technology
Being a PhD student
Alongside their regular departmental research group, the researchers who work at the Industrial Doctoral School are part of an interdisciplinary research group. This group is allocated a course package of 15 higher education credits to strengthen the doctoral student’s collaborative ability and equip them for professional practice with knowledge over and above their own area of scientific expertise.
A doctoral studentship also includes three months of placements with the external organisation. Taken together, this provides a strong personal platform for qualified work within research and development.
