Across the U.S., STEM PhD programs are facing a pivotal challenge: how to prepare doctoral students for impactful careers in industry, national labs, healthcare, and other sectors beyond academia. While most graduates take these non-academic paths, traditional training still emphasizes academic research and offers limited exposure to the complex, real-world problems tackled in industry settings.
To close this gap, and following recommendations from previous workshops in 2020-2021, LeHigh researchers, led by Himanshu Jain, PI, piloted a new model of PhD education—the Pasteur Partnership PhD (P3). There was overwhelming interest from students but only a small fraction could be enrolled due to challenges in forming required industry-university partnerships.
Academic leaders, industry partners, government agencies, and international experts are invited to collaboratively address the challenges and provide solutions for forming industry-university partnerships for doctoral education in the United States.
Workshop highlights include:
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Expert insights from leaders in STEM graduate education, research, and workforce development
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International perspectives from institutions with established industry-integrated PhD programs
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Working sessions focused on actionable strategies for building and sustaining partnerships
Together, we’ll explore what it takes to embed real-world relevance into doctoral education—and ensure the next generation of PhD talent is prepared to drive innovation across sectors.
👉 Learn more about the workshop.
📅 August 4–6, 2025
📍 National Academies Building, 2101 Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC
This Workshop is organized by Lehigh University’s Pasteur Partners Ph.D. (P3) program. It is a part of National Science Foundation’s Innovation in Graduate Education project: Partnership with Researchers in Industry for Doctoral Education (PRIDE).
