The program will support 250 doctoral students over the next five years.
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Despite higher education’s widespread pushback to the Trump administration’s overhaul of the scientific enterprise, many universities see the government’s recent $47.5 million investment in the Ph.D.-to-industry pipeline as an opportunity to better prepare graduate students for jobs outside of academia.
The National Science Foundation announced last month that it’s launching a pilot for the Industry-Integrated PhD (I-PhD) Scholars program this fall, which will be led by the University-Industry Demonstration Partnership. Over the next five years, the pilot will support 250 doctoral students nationwide through a mix of industry, university and federal funding. The goal is to “better align the U.S. STEM graduate training with industry needs, modernize this training for today’s job markets, and grow the pool of resources invested in a well-prepared and adaptable talent base, building a more competitive, high-skilled American workforce,” an NSF spokesperson told Inside Higher Ed. And as the NSF’s official announcement put it, the program addresses “a growing mismatch in American doctoral education.”
