A collaborative project between industry and academia to enhance Engineering Education at graduate and PhD level in ceramic technology

Results of an intensive and effective industry-academia partnership are presented, demonstrating that barriers to inter-sectoral mobility have been overcome, achieving an enhancement in the quality of both graduate and doctoral programmes in engineering. The industrial and social needs of improving the ceramic production process and of developing novel advanced ceramic multifunctional materials and structures were essential for the creation of a synergetic cooperation between a world leader industry for Ceramics (SACMI), a medium enterprise specialized in Virtual Prototyping (ENGINSOFT) and an academic research group in Solids and Structural Mechanics of the University of Trento. The research collaboration has lasted several years producing a continuous inter-sectoral and inter-disciplinary transfer of knowledge among the partners and maximising in this way their performance, in particular in terms of added value generated through human capital improvements. An additional impact of the above mentioned cooperation has been the award of a Marie Curie - Industry Academia-Partnership & Pathway four years grant focused on boosting skills exchange between the commercial and non-commercial sectors through secondments of academic staff and PhD students to industry and vice-versa. Moreover, the partnership has led to a significant enhancement in the teaching results, together with an increasing motivation of the students, crucial in the Engineering Education.