CESAER presents report on how industrial doctorates strengthen research-industry pipelines

CESAER, the association of leading universities of science and technology in Europe, released a report on ‘Industrial doctorates: strengthening Europe’s research–industry talent pipelines’ on 31 March 2026. The report outlines how industrial doctorates can strengthen collaboration between universities and industry and reinforce Europe’s high-skilled talent pipelines, and improve the employability of doctoral candidates, while maintaining highest academic standards when supported by robust co-supervision and contributing to Europe’s competitiveness, innovation capacity and talent pipelines.

The CESAER report highlights four strategic priorities that underpin targeted recommendations to EU institutions, Member States and regional authorities, universities of science and technology and other research-performing organisations, and industry, SMEs and other non-academic partners:

• Scale high-quality industrial doctorates through reinforced European and national funding, in particular by strengthening the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) within a significantly reinforced next EU framework programme.
• Simplify and align regulatory and administrative frameworks, especially to lower entry barriers for SMEs and cross-border cooperation.
• Embed industrial doctorates within coherent doctoral governance and research career frameworks, ensuring parity of academic standards while strengthening intersectoral mobility and talent pipelines.
• Ensure clear and balanced intellectual property frameworks, including transparent IP arrangements and publication rules that balance open science principles with legitimate commercial interests in university–industry collaboration.

The report builds on earlier work by CESAER Task Force Innovation ‘Models of engagement for PhDs with non-academic partners’ (October 2024).

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CESAER report: 'Industrial doctorates: Strengthening Europe's research-industra talent pipelines'