Industrial PhD Course

The Industrial PhD course is only for Industrial PhD-students funded by Innovation Fund Denmark. The course is managed by Centre for Educational Development, Aarhus University.

The course and its content is designed for you, as a student, to follow at the start of your Industrial PhD education, and you will make the most of the course by participating early in your project. We therefore encourage you to sign up for the first coming course after your project start.

The course will help you prepare for your role as Industrial PhD student and strengthen the special industrial researcher profile that you are about to develop.

Objective

The kickoff day for industrial PhD students and supervisors focuses on the characteristics of industrial PhD projects that highly influence the role of both the students and the supervisors.

Learning outcomes

During the rest of the course, you will

identify stakeholders in your project and develop a strategy for managing them
acquire tools for building bridges between academic research and practice including methods for personal branding, career choices and knowledge sharing.
During the second seminar there is an elective module, where you can choose between project management and value creation, based on research outcome.

Purpose of the Industrial PhD course

The overall aim of the course is dressing the Industrial PhD students to take on the role of Business Researcher and ensuring your business impact during and after the study. The course's goals are as follows:

That the Industrial PhD student acquires practical and theoretical tools for managing a research project that runs across academic cultures and business cultures and often does not have a clear hierarchical structure.
That the Industrial PhD student gets the tools to engage in academic and commercial environments and get the best of both.
That the Industrial PhD student receives tools to translate own and other research into innovation and business value.
That the PhD student acquires an understanding of his/her potential impact as a business researcher and the impact of the project in both an enterprise as well as social perspective and also is able to act in relation to it.
That the Industrial PhD student creates a professional and social network with other Industrial PhD students.
The course is rated to 5 ECTS credits and is mandatory for all approved Industrial PhD students.

Organisation and staff

Organisation

The Industrial PhD Course consists of online activities and two times two full course days, which is consisting of kickoff and 3 modules. The very first day - kickoff - is mandatory for supervisors as well.

Online activities

From approx. 10 October 2024 (for the autumn 2024 course) / 8 March 2025 (for the spring 2025 course) there will be online activities in the learning management system Brightspace.

There is online activities before and after each seminar. Prior to our first seminar, you must expect up to 30 hours preparatory work.

Between the two seminars there will be around 40 hours of work, mostly preparatory work, but also 3 online meetings in different group configurations. The format of the preparatory work is online, asynchronous learning activities like readings, video material, discussions in fora etc.

As a participant in the course, you must plan to participate in online learning activities in the entirety of the period from 10 October 2024 to 23 March 2025 (for the autumn 2024 course) / 8 March 2025 to 15 September 2025 (for the spring 2025 course). After the last seminar you should expect to spend around 20 hours on the final written exam. The course page opens approx. on 10 October 2024 (for the autumn 2024 course) / approx. 8 March 2025 (for the spring 2025 course).

Seminar days

The student participates in kickoff + three modules over a 6 month period from the start of the PhD project.

The first gathering - kickoff and module 1 - takes place in central Copenhagen, and includes accomodation for the PhD Students.

The second gathering will take place in Middelfart, and also includes accomodation for the PhD Students.

The teacher team focuses on ensuring a clear common thread between the online and onsite learning activities: We emphasize active and deep learning by encouraging interaction, discussion, action and reflection, but there is of course also a need for acquiring new perspectives, models, methods etc. A substantial part of the course will be organized as group work in both disciplinary and interdisciplinary groups, but there will also be individual work and plenary sessions.

Besides the online activities it is not possible to participate online in the course days.

Staff

The Industrial PhD Course is managed by

Helle Meibom Færgemann, Special Consultant (course coordinator)
Sarah Robinson, Associate Professor

Prerequisites

The course is only for Industrial PhD-students funded by Innovation Fund Denmark.

FAQ

Examination form

The examination form of the course is a written exam, passed/fail.

Workload

You will spend around 125 hours on the course (incl preparatory work).
There is online activities before and after each seminar. Prior to our first seminar, you must expect up to 30 hours preparatory work.
After the last seminar you should expect to spend around 20 hours on the final written exam.

Accomodation and transport

Accommodation is provided for the PhD students during the course days. The students and supervisors are responsible for arranging any necessary accommodation the day before the course starts and must pay for this using their project funds.
Supervisors are only required to attend the kickoff meeting until approximately 5:30 PM. Therefore, accommodation is not arranged for them. If they need accommodation, they must organize and pay for it themselves using their project funds.

Supervisor participation

As an obligation in the Industrial PhD project, the Industrial PhD candidate, the university supervisor and the company supervisor must all participate in a kickoff meeting for all participants in approved projects.
The purpose of the kickoff meeting is to give you the best starting point for the collaboration and help you prepare for the challenges that may arise during an Industrial PhD project.
Please note that you do not need to participate if you have participated in an kickoff meeting within the past three years, or if your place of residence is outside Denmark.

The main supervisors must register for the kickoff meeting via the registration link on this page.

Permission from the Innovation Fund is required to have another supervisor (e.g., a co-supervisor) attend the kickoff.

Autumn 2024 - time and place

Kickoff and module 1

11 - 12 November 2024

DGI Byen
Tietgensgade 65
1704 København V
Phone number: +45 3329 8000
Email: info@dgibyen.dk

Modul 2 and 3

24 - 25 March 2025

Severin Conference Center
Skovsvinget 25
5500 Middelfart
Phone number: +45 6341 9100
Email: severin@severinkursuscenter.dk

Please note: only the very first day, the kickoff 11 November, is mandatory for supervisors to participate in.

Both PhD students and their supervisors must sign up for the course via the registration link.

Registration deadline: 10 September 2024

There will be online activities before and after kickoff+module 1 and module 2+3.
Prior to the first seminar, you must expect up to 30 hours preparatory work.
The online course page opens 10 October in the learning mangement system Brightspace.