“A MORE FREQUENT EXCHANGE COULD LEAD TO MUTUAL BENEFITS FOR UNIVERSITIES AND INDUSTRY

“After graduating in Chemical Technology (Ir.) at the University of Twente, I started working in industrial R&D. Although I intended to move to other parts of the business at a later stage, I became more fascinated by science than I had ever expected. Thirty years later I am still working in the research area, currently leading the Process Technology department in the Strategic Research Group at AkzoNobel Chemicals. A few years ago I decided to do a PhD study, in addition to my industrial job, graduating at the end of last year."

“In my opinion experiencing in-depth scientific work needed to obtain a PhD degree has clear benefits for people aiming at an industrial R&D-career, although it is not a must. Our Strategic Research Group is closely involved in PhD projects via public private partnerships, NWO programs and selected partnerships with individual universities. A high level of expertise in our own group is a prerequisite to embed the generated knowledge from these programs into our own organisation, and benefit from it as a company. We often employ PhD graduates from these co-operation programs; they definitely have the right level of professional expertise and skills to start an interesting and successful career in industry. Obviously, continuous professional and personal development is needed after entering a company, and opportunities for that are provided by AkzoNobel. This allows employees with a PhD degree to follow different career paths and move away from research specialist or R&D management jobs into technical marketing, plant technology or general management based on their interest and capabilities."

“A further observation, after working on the interface of academic and industrial research for a long time, is that an exchange of more senior scientists between academia and industry is relatively seldom seen, although there are examples. A more frequent exchange could lead to mutual benefits for universities and industry in my opinion."