Jan-Jaap Koning, project manager at Applied Physics and author of the proposal, believes there's a good chance the grant will be awarded. The application was submitted in May to OPZuid and the province of North Brabant. “We have received interest from sixteen SMEs and they are already included in the application.”

If the grant is allocated, a PDEng program will cost an SME (small or medium-sized enterprise) not thirty thousand but fifteen thousand euros. In addition, the salary costs of the employee involved and the supervisor's hours will be reimbursed at 50 percent. What's more, for the introduction of new training modules, the university is requesting grant to hire extra trainers from industry.

The overhaul of the Professional Doctorate in Engineering programs (PDEngs) may be given a significant boost, according to Koning, by this grant applications and the new structure has immediate benefits for the SME sector. “We can now offer TU/e-wide programs with basic and elective modules. In the past our PDEng programs were mainly separate and fixed. Employees will now be able to adapt their program to suit their own individual needs. And the timing of the various lectures will be more convenient thanks to the TU/e-wide approach.”

Supervision

Thirty-one PDEng projects have been applied for, running via almost all TU/e's PDEng programs. Twenty of these projects will start in 2019, the other eleven in 2020. The SME members will spend some of their time taking training sessions at TU/e while working in parallel on a project of their own at their place of work, supported by university supervision.

According to Koning, the closer cooperation also has all kinds of benefits for TU/e. “It will improve our relevance to the SME sector and familiarize them with our facilities. We welcome SME people because when it comes to the project plan and its implementation they are very concrete. These are small companies, which means they are close to the market. What's more, in this structure the trainee's salary costs are not charged to TU/e. Consequently, the government funding can be reduced and companies can enjoy greater benefits. I think that with the improved payment arrangement we can attract more candidates to the PDEng programs.”

This large-scale cooperation with industry is new, believes Koning, although in a similar way hospital employees are already taking PDEng programs at TU/e. In December it will be known whether the grant will be awarded. If so, the SME employees will be able to start their two-year PDEng programs as of January 2019. Koning hopes that companies will apply for alternative resources before the grant ceases in 2023, and thus that more companies will request program places. “The aim is to increase the intake by 50 percent, but more would be even nicer.”