Doctorate and company

The Industrial Doctorates Plan is a Government of Catalonia initiative, in collaboration with public and private universities, that aims to contribute to the competitiveness and internationalisation of companies in the Catalan territory, retain talent and place doctoral students in companies where they can develop R&D&I projects.

The essential element of the Industrial Doctorates Plan is the industrial doctorate project, that is, a strategic research project carried out at a company that allows the doctoral students to further develop his research training in collaboration with a university, and which is the object of a doctoral thesis. This thesis may apply for the industrial doctorate distinction in the PhD certificate.

• The doctoral students will be given a thesis director from the university and a project manager appointed by the company.
• The time dedicated by the doctorand to the research projects will be divided between the company and the university.
• The doctoral students will take part in training programmes in specific skills related to project coordination and management, business plans, industrial and intellectual property, among other relevant subjects.
• The doctoral students will have a grant for doctoral enrolment and for international mobility.
• There must be an agreement between the enterprise, the unitervisty and the PhD candidate. This regulates the training and the research in the project (contact with the Doctoral School at convenisepd@urv.cat).

How to participate in "Pla DI" 2023?

The procedure has several phases. Consult the Industrial Doctorates Plan of the Catalan Government for information on the dates of each phase and steps that you must follow. There are 4 deadlines for applying Pla DI 2024. The aid must be applied after the project has been published and the PhD candidate has been selected by the enterprise and the university.

Industrial Doctorates Plan Call 2024 (OPEN; webpage only in Catalan and Spanish)

• Deadlines:

  	Application deadline AGAUR	Internal deadline URV for the agreement management*
  1st deadline	16/04/2024 (14 h)	02/04/2024
  2nd deadline	11/06/2024 (14 h)	28/05/2024
  3rd deadline	08/10/2024 (14 h)	27/09/2024
  4th deadline	10/12/2024 (14 h)	25/11/2024

  *Would you apply for the agreement at Doctoral School later than this day, we cannot ensure the agreement is properly signed for the corresponding deadline and you will have to apply for the AGAUR aid in the next deadline.
   
• Project
  The university and the company agree on and fill in the form for a project.
• Project publication
  The industrial projects are posted on the website and the period for applicants is opened.
  The company and the university jointly select the candidate who best meets the requirements.
• Grant application
  The university and the company must jointly submit an application to the AGAUR using the Virtual Citizen Care Office (OVT; webpage only in Catalan and Spanish), with all the required documentation (collaboration agreement, selection report, academic transcripts and admission documentation).
• Results