UVic-UCC is the Catalan university with the most industrial doctorates awarded in proportion to the total number of doctoral students

The University of Vic - Central University of Catalonia (UVic-UCC) is the Catalan university which has been awarded the most industrial doctorates compared to the total number of doctoral students, according to official figures for the 2023-2024 academic year. Thirteen industrial doctorates were awarded at UVic-UCC during the last academic year - a figure that amounts to 3.45% of all the doctoral students who were enrolled (377) at the University's Doctoral School. As a proportion, this percentage places UVic-UCC at the dead of the ranking among Catalan universities, above the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (2.36%) and the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (1.68%), which were in second and third place respectively last year. In overall terms, UVic-UCC obtained 8.6% of the grants awarded in the call for industrial doctorates from the Agency for Management of University and Research Grants (AGAUR) last year, which placed it in fourth position. 

Candidates at UVic-UCC obtained 20 industrial doctorates in 2024, more than double the figure for 2023 (which was seven) and in comparative terms, it was the Catalan university that experienced the most growth. In fact, the industrial doctoral research projects at UVic-UCC amounted to 13.4% of the total number of those awarded to Catalan universities. In addition to these excellent figures, the UVic-UCC Doctoral School has exceeded the threshold of 400 enrolled students for the first time this academic year (2024-2025), with 416 students. Information about the enrolment period for the next academic year at the Doctoral School is available here. 

Overview of the last decade  

Over the last decade (2013-2024), since the beginning of the Government of Catalonia's industrial doctorate programme, UVic-UCC has been awarded a total of 80 industrial doctorates. These doctorates have been undertaken with the involvement of 53 companies and institutions from all over Catalonia, although the majority of the projects have taken place in the Barcelonès (33 projects), Osona (27) and Bages (12) regions, as well as some in the Gironès, Baix Llobregat and Segrià regions, among other areas.
Forty-two of the 80 industrial doctorates awarded at UVic-UCC, where 45 doctoral theses are currently in progress, were undertaken in the co-financing format (by doctoral candidates recruited by companies or institutions) and 38 in the specific format (by the company or institution's own personnel). The knowledge areas in which UVic-UCC has the longest tradition of industrial doctoral research projects are Medical and Health Sciences (48.7%) and Experimental Sciences (33.7 %). 

The eighty industrial doctorates obtained to date include the eight that were awarded in the recent resolution by the Government of Catalonia's Ministry of Research and Universities, which was announced at the end of February. UVic-UCC is in fifth place in the ranking for the overall total of industrial doctorates obtained in the last decade and among the Catalan universities that have obtained the most in this period. It is level with the Universitat Rovira i Virgili (80), and not far behind the University of Girona (83), albeit behind the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and the University of Barcelona.  

The industrial doctorate is a type of doctoral programme primarily focused on undertaking a strategic research project for a company or institution that must be carried out in partnership with a university or research centre, and which becomes the subject of a doctoral thesis. The industrial doctoral research project enables the doctoral student to begin a research career in a dual environment (business and academic) and to address challenges that the socio-economic fabric has identified as strategic. The specialised knowledge of a research group is required in order to be able to undertake this research with some likelihood of success. 

Projects with links to the region  

"We firmly believe in industrial doctorates at the UVic-UCC Doctoral School, and in fact one of the objectives of our 2023-2027 Action Plan is to consolidate them, as they are an excellent way of undertaking applied research projects and a very effective tool for transferring knowledge to society," explains Marta Otero, the director of the Doctoral School. She says that "industrial doctorates are a type of doctoral studies that reinforces the Doctoral School's strategy of training doctors who become real agents of social transformation."  

In the same vein, Jordi Baiget, the general manager of the Balmes University Foundation, the institution that owns UVic-UCC, believes that industrial doctorates "are a very good formula for strengthening and expanding the ties between the University and companies, which has proven to be a success over more than a decade. They enable us to foster innovation and competitiveness in the country's production fabric and at the same time, they reinforce the University's commitment to the region's economic and social development," he adds.  

Eight new industrial doctorates 

Of the eight industrial doctorate research projects recently awarded to UVic-UCC, six are in the field of Medical and Health Sciences, and four of these will be undertaken at the Hospital Consortium of Vic (CHV). One of them will be carried out by the doctoral student Maria Neus Farré Cobo, who will focus on the use of clinical simulation as a strategy for improving the work of nursing teams. Another one will be undertaken by Sílvia Carbonell Palau, and its main objective will be to implement and evaluate the results of an intervention based on peer support for patients diagnosed with cancer. Meanwhile, the doctoral candidate student Jordina Muñoz Padrós will conduct research to assess the effect of a multicomponent intervention in a group of caregivers on the quality of life of people with Alzheimer's disease. Finally, Lidia Carballeira Pol will work on an industrial doctorate that aims to provide robust data to confirm that holistic cardiac rehabilitation (HCR) causes reverse atrial remodelling and a reduction in both atrial fibrillation burden and cardiovascular risk factors.  

Meanwhile, Núria Manchó Casadesús will undertake her industrial doctorate with the Catalan Health Institute, and will focus on understanding the degree of implementation of community health in the various primary healthcare teams in Catalonia and determining the reasons why some of these teams implement community health programmes, and others do not. The doctoral candidate Martí Baig Prim will undertake research at the company MICROSON, SAU, on the effect that the application of new technologies, and spatial and surround audio techniques in particular, can have during the aural rehabilitation process in patients with hearing loss. 

In the field of Social Sciences, Marcel Barjuan Lloreda has been awarded an industrial doctorate project, which will be undertaken at the Osona Social Services Consortium. The project aims to examine the format that regional plans for caring for homeless people should take, and to compare the initiatives, plans and strategies being implemented with those in other areas of Europe and in North America. 

Finally, in the field of Human Sciences, Anaïs Esmerado Martí will do an industrial doctorate with the Intress Association. This research project aims to investigate how social and participatory design methodologies can enrich and improve the social intervention models at the Institute of Social Work and Social Services (Intress).