Proud. That is what the graduates are when receiving their EIT Digital Doctoral School diploma. EIT Digital awarded 15 doctorates in Budapest for successful completion of their PhD programme that aims to train Europe's future digital leaders in industry. "Very glad to be the first Spanish EIT Digital Doctoral School graduate", twitters Roberto Custumero.
At the ceremony eight of the fifteen graduating PhD's went to Budapest for the official graduation ceremony. The Graduation ceremony is a key momentum of the EIT Digital Doctoral School in regards with the European Innovation and Entrepreneurship Education Programme implemented by EIT Digital to strengthen Europe's role in the global digital economy through a strong network of European schools and universities.
Europe's innovation leaders
The EIT Digital Doctoral School programme offers PhD students an extensive innovation and entrepreneurial training in addition to a technical education. These graduating students put into practice the theoretical knowledge acquired during the Doctoral School Programme in an industrial internship.
Prof. Dr Willem Jonker, CEO of EIT Digital is proud on these new cohort of students and gives them a mission. "EIT Digital equipped you with the right tools to be successful. You are Europe's innovation leaders of the future. It is our responsibility to be inclusive and to make sure the whole society benefits from digital technology. Be ambitious and be drivers of change. I wish the new industrial PhD's a career full of innovation."
Marcelino Rodriguez Canciio, one of the eight graduates who came to Budapest to collect his diploma is certainly willing to do so: "EIT Digital taught me to spot and grab opportunities. It is not enough to be talented and smart, being an EIT Digital PhD student you learn also the need to be fast." Roberto Costumero shows his pride on Twitter where he poses with a diploma and tweets: Let's make the EIT Digital family bigger!"
The Doctoral school
The EIT Digital Doctoral School currently has 134 PhD candidates studying at seven EIT Digital Doctoral Training Centres in Budapest, Helsinki, Madrid, Paris, Rennes, Milan and Trento, which are run in cooperation with 16 partner universities in Europe. Former EIT Digital Doctoral School students are employed in academia in major corporations or have started their own companies. Since 2016 the EIT Digital Doctoral School offers only industrial doctorates. At the moment 34 of the 134 PhD candidates work under academic supervision on industry assignments.
According to Eurostat, the industry is crying for people with ICT skills, especially in the Benelux countries and Estonia. The EIT Digital Academy serves this needs via the Doctoral School, Master School and Professional School.
