Abstract:

PhD students are a group of students who receive little attention because they are in the last stage of the university academic level. They have needs, obligations and should commit themselves to the society, bearing in mind that they are subject to different rules that the rest of university students. PhD students can find in industrial companies a wide opportunity to develop the PhD thesis work in a real environment; thus, students, industrial companies and the University could benefit from this mutual synergy. This dynamic could be called triple beneficiaries or win3. Almost every European State have the Industrial Doctorate Program, but the objectives and protocols are quite different. However, they share a common interest: making the industry aware of the advantages of widening access to PhD students. This openness can surely attract talent from the University that can result in an increase of the competitiveness of theses industries. At the same time, students obtain the advantages of participating in a research project and accessing its resources, planning the research process in a very detailed and attainable way, so that both parties find that necessary benefit. This research shows the interest of students in pursuing a doctorate, both within and outside of the Industrial Doctorate Program. The main purpose of this work is to know the opinions of potential future doctoral students and analyse how these students can fulfil the interests of the industry. In the end, this report aims to show a realistic proposal of work and realistic topic of PhD in which both university and industry can support and update together in today's society. This study is based on the results of a survey sent to current PhD students, Master students and research personnel from various industrial sectors, obtaining that 78% of PhD students and 53% of industrial sectors research personnel know about Industrial Doctorate Program.

Keywords:

PhD, industry, students, research