Improving the business

For many companies it is a boost to the business when an employee pursues a PhD degree. The Industrial PhD Scheme and the Public Sector PhD Scheme are ordinary PhD degrees and will have the same scientific quality level as a traditional PhD degree.

Industrial PhDs will improve interaction between companies and academic institutions, increase research activity in industry and develop researchers with knowledge that is relevant to their industry.

Public Sector PhDs will improve interaction between public sector bodies and academic institutions, make room for more research in the public sector and educate researchers with knowledge relevant for public sector bodies. A “public sector body” is defined as state enterprises, regional or local authorities, bodies governed by public law and associations formed by one or several such authorities that carry out tasks on behalf of public agencies (See the Research Council’s definition of a public sector body).

All three parties will benefit from the arrangement:

• The candidate gets a doctoral degree and relevant work experience
• The company or the public body gets new competence and strengthened contact with academia
• Higher education research institution gets new knowledge and contact with companies and public sector bodies

Companies or public sector bodies with a PhD agreement may receive a yearly sum of max 50 % of the current PhD candidate rate for three years. It is given as project support to the company and not as a personal grant to the employee. The employee must be granted admission to an ordinary PhD education programme. The Industrial PhD and the Public Sector PhD are seen as complementary to other arrangements with the Norwegian Research Council. The arrangement may be a good alternativ for companies and public sector bodies that seek to strengthen their research and innovation activity, but lack resources to participate in large projects.