Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona

What you'll study

The doctoral work itself is the core of the mention: the thesis must be the output of an R+D+I project carried out mainly in the company or administration. In addition to the research project, candidates must comply with the standard doctoral obligations at the UAB (annual registration, monitoring, and compulsory training activities), plus activities specific to the industrial mention such as completing the prescribed "Document d'activitats" entries (notably Activity 33 and Activity 49) before thesis deposit.

Entry requirements

• Existence of a labour or commercial contract of at least one year with a company (private or public sector) or a public administration (universities excluded).
• The research training must have been conducted mainly in the company or administration within an R+D+I project that is the subject of the doctoral thesis.
• A collaboration agreement between the University (and/or research centre or hospital foundation) and at least one company, administration or institution must be signed for the explicit purpose of preparing the thesis; this agreement must be signed within the first year from the date of admission to the doctorate.
• The doctoral candidate must have a UAB-designated thesis tutor affiliated to the doctoral programme and a person responsible appointed by the company or administration (who may also be the thesis director, per doctoral regulations).
• The candidate’s research time must be split between the external organisation and the university, and the candidate must meet the other usual doctoral conditions (registration, monitoring, mandatory training activities, permanence regime).
• To initiate the administrative processing of the collaboration agreement, the agreement details for the project and company must be completed following the UAB model and sent in MS Word format to doctorat.industrial@uab.cat.

Career prospects

The mention signals that the doctoral training and thesis are industry-embedded and oriented to applied R+D+I. It is particularly relevant for careers that bridge academia and industry: R+D roles within companies, research positions in public administrations, technology transfer, industrial research centres and roles requiring proven experience leading applied innovation projects in collaboration with a university.

Scholarships & funding angle (general)

Funding and recognition for this mention depend on the contractual relationship with the company or administration and on the signed collaboration agreement. Candidates must retain contractual evidence (e.g. company certificate or social security record) to accredit their association with the industrial project when preparing the thesis deposit. For administrative questions about the agreement contact doctorat.industrial@uab.cat and for other doctoral matters contact ed.comissions@uab.cat.