The CESAER report highlights four strategic priorities that underpin targeted recommendations to EU institutions, Member States and regional authorities, universities of science and technology and other research-performing organisations, and industry, SMEs and other non-academic partners:
- Scale high-quality industrial doctorates through reinforced European and national funding, in particular by strengthening the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) within a significantly reinforced next EU framework programme.
- Simplify and align regulatory and administrative frameworks, especially to lower entry barriers for SMEs and cross-border cooperation.
- Embed industrial doctorates within coherent doctoral governance and research career frameworks, ensuring parity of academic standards while strengthening intersectoral mobility and talent pipelines.
- Ensure clear and balanced intellectual property frameworks, including transparent IP arrangements and publication rules that balance open science principles with legitimate commercial interests in university–industry collaboration.