The INRESCOS Industry Career & Internship Workshop 2026 was held at USN Campus Vestfold, Bakkenteigen, Horten, on 27 August 2026, bringing together PhD candidates and INRESCOS alumni around a common theme: moving research closer to industrial impact. The programme connected industrial internship experiences with post-PhD careers, showing how research competence can be translated into practical value.
The workshop was designed around a simple but important question: how can PhD researchers connect the depth of their research with the needs and realities of industry? Rather than presenting industry as an alternative to research, the sessions emphasized the continuity between research and industrial problem-solving. Internships, industry collaborations, networking, and deliberate career planning were presented as mechanisms through which researchers can test the relevance of their knowledge, develop transferable competencies, and understand how their research can contribute to practical challenges. The programme combined presentations from researchers with industrial internship experience, an alumni perspective on the transition from PhD research to an industrial R&D career, career-development guidance, networking, and group discussions. Together, these activities provided complementary perspectives on the same transition: from developing knowledge as a researcher to applying that knowledge as a professional problem-solver in an industrial context.
Industrial experience as a bridge
Ramy Antar Ahmed Alham (UiA) showed how industrial collaboration strengthens doctoral research with example of control and modelling of self-hoisting cranes for offshore wind maintenance to real data and operational conditions.
Tanver Ahammad Hazari (NTNU) demonstrated how multi-stakeholder projects on sustainable manufacturing require systems thinking, particularly when confidentiality, competing interests, and different perspectives shape the problem.
Le Hoang Vuong Nguyen (USN) connected her materials research on metal-covalent organic frameworks with Nanize's industrial coating process, gaining experience in application, characterization, interdisciplinary collaboration, and the commercial dimensions of research. She stressed that successful industrial engagement also requires multiple skills to benefit you as a researcher in overcoming bottlenecks.
From research to career
Zubair Masaud, an INRESCOS alumnus and now Project Manager and R&D Scientist at Elkem Silicon Products, showed how this bridge can become a career. His transition from PhD research to industrial R&D and project management involved translating research capability into industrial problems and decisions. He emphasized that industry adds constraints such as reproducibility, scalability, cost, operability, and environmental impact, and encouraged PhDs to understand the value of their research, seek industrial connections, and apply before feeling completely ready.
Making the transition deliberate
Aina Enstad, Senior Advisor at USN, framed the next step as deliberate career development. PhD candidates need to recognize their transferable competencies and translate them into workplace value by understanding what employers need, identifying evidence from their research, and building the skills and networks required for their intended direction. She provided the students with valuable tools and references.
The broader message
Across the workshop, one idea connected the experiences: industry is not a departure from research, but a context in which PhD expertise can be translated into impact. Internships provide the bridge, industrial collaboration provides the context, and career planning helps turn research capability into sustained professional value.