A new industry postdoc program within WASP promotes knowledge exchange

A novel initiative in terms of an industry postdoctoral program will extend collaborations between academia and industry. WASP is now offering up to 5 industrial postdoc positions, as well as 15 industrial doctoral student positions, within AI, Autonomous systems and Software. The calls are open between January 16^th and April 7^th 2023.

Cooperation between industry and academia is of crucial importance for the dissemination of knowledge from research and development to companies and society. Within the framework of WASP, there are a number of instruments facilitating this. The industrial PhD student program in WASP promote exchanges between academia and industry, both in terms of relevant research results and access to expertise. During 2023, a new WASP industry postdoctoral program will further encourage this collaboration:

“With the WASP industry postdoctoral program we are creating unique opportunities for companies to hire talented PhDs with state-of-the-art knowledge and skills in areas of highest possible strategic value for Swedish industry”, says Anders Ynnerman, program director of WASP.

WASP is now offering up to 15 industrial doctoral student positions and 5 industrial postdoc positions within AI, Autonomous systems and Software at the five partner universities Chalmers, KTH, Linköping University, Lund University and Umeå University as well as at the affiliated groups of excellence at Örebro University, Uppsala University, and Luleå University of Technology. The industrial partner is required to have significant research activities situated in Sweden.

WASP industry postdoctoral program

The industrial postdoc initiative is primarily aimed at recently graduated PhDs who are considering a career as an industry researcher or at PhDs who are already employed at a company and engaged in research. The postdoc should conduct industrially motivated research in the context of a collaboration between a company and a university research group.

An industrial postdoc will be 100% employed by an industrial partner and have one designated supervisor at the company and one at the university.

The projects are expected to address fundamental research problems with industrial relevance encompassing the WASP research areas AI, Autonomous Systems or Software. The industrial postdoc should share time between the company and the university but be fully engaged in research activities on both sites.

The duration of an industrial postdoc project will be two years, starting earliest August 1 2023 and no later than June 30 2024.

A webinar about the industrial PhD student and postdoc calls was held on January 23rd. The presentation is available below.