Young life scientists have been increasingly abandoning academia, a seismic shift that has fueled calls for rethinking graduate education. On Wednesday, the Trump administration announced that it’s funding a pilot program to test a new strategy: Giving Ph.D. students industry experience — and dollars — as part of their training.
The program is creating four-year Ph.D. programs that are jointly bankrolled by universities and industry partners, with additional support from the National Science Foundation. During their Ph.D. studies, participants will spend at least one year conducting research at a company site.
Around 30 university-industry pairs plan to participate, with academic partners including the University of California, San Diego, and Northwestern, Purdue, and Columbia universities. The companies include life science instrument and service firm Agilent Technologies, as well as chemical company DuPont and Bayer’s crop science division. The industry-university partners have signed letters of intent, though they have not signed final agreements.
The pilot program was first reported by the media company Pirate Wires.
NSF will spend $47 million over the next five years to support the more than 250 students expected to participate. Students working in fields eligible for NSF funding will be able to participate, including chemistry, engineering, and basic life science research that doesn’t deal directly with the treatment of disease.
