Industrial PhD studies

Who can apply?

Executing units within a COWI Group company.

Requirements for cooperation with COWI and funding from public organisations 

For an industrial PhD study donation, the PhD student must be employed by a COWI Group company. The donation will be granted to the executing unit in the COWI Group company. 

To be eligible for donations, the applicant must secure support from the relevant national support scheme for industrial PhDs. This can include support schemes such as Innovation Fund Denmark (DK), Formas (SE), the Research Council of Norway (NO) or similar (for example, the EU or a national support scheme). 

In countries where COWI is active and industrial PhD systems are not established, the project structure and application should be based on the principles outlined by Innovation Fund Denmark (DK) on their website. 

Preparing your application

When preparing your application, please ensure that you meet the submission deadline of 1 April or 1 October at 12:00 (noon) CET.

Application must be submitted via COWIfonden's online application platform, and document forwarding is not permitted. 

When preparing the application, please use this guideline. 

You can only apply for funds for an industrial PhD study once, i.e. your application must cover both funding for salary and any experimental research. The application must contain all relevant costs related to the completion of the study. In other words, it is not possible to apply for further funding for experimental research or other items later on. 

Language

Please ensure that the application is prepared in English. 

Economic framework

COWIfonden grants donations to cover up to 40% of the salary expenses for the industrial PhD student with a maximum limit of DKK 650,000 (DKK 216,667 per year) over a three-year period. In addition, it is also possible to apply for funds up to a maximum of DKK 300,000 to carry out experimental research. 

Results

To ensure transparency and impact, the project results must be published or made public. This may involve various forms of dissemination, such as publication in international scientific journals, participation in international conferences or release of open-source software. The final thesis shall be made publicly available.