Coping with the challenges of an industrial PhD

Richard Turinsky works for BMW but is also doing a PhD via the BMW doctoral programme in collaboration with Strathclyde – here, he explains how it works and why it’s worthwhile.

My PhD journey started at Strathclyde Business School after I successfully graduated from my masters. I had already written my master thesis in cooperation with the BMW Group in Munich, Germany - it was very challenging but very interesting to combine theory and practice. Therefore, I was more than happy when I realised that BMW offered a dissertation project in collaboration with Strathclyde University on a topic that was closely related to my master thesis.

After the application process, which started with a simple online application on the BMW Group career page, I started my PhD journey in the BMW doctoral programme “ProMotion”. The first few months of my PhD were interesting since it is a completely new environment in the BMW Group programme. ProMotion focuses on research topics that are closely connected to the company’s innovation strategy. The industrial PhD - especially in such a huge enterprise with many other PhD students from different backgrounds and nationalities - requires more effort due to the interwoven perspective of theory and practice but it offers extremely interesting opportunities in terms of, for example, networking, insights into practice and a network of highly motivated colleagues.

The ProMotion programme at BMW offers a lot of opportunities, such as working on the assembly line, getting insights into car dealerships, or experiencing innovation from a close-up perspective. It also offers a variety of training opportunities for personal development, or how to cope with the challenges of a PhD. Besides my PhD in the company, which is dedicated to machine learning and its inferences on the cost analysis in procurement, I can retrieve insights from innovative projects, which can be joined voluntarily. ProMotion participants can fully focus on their scientific work, with no involvement into operational business.

Supervision is also different from a “classic” PhD because, in addition to the university supervision, the company provides you with one additional supervisor for your thesis. Hence, the number of meetings to coordinate the next steps must be done with your university and your company supervisors. I am in regular contact with my university and company supervisors and coordinate my progress. This makes it somehow more stressful but also more target oriented and I can fully focus on my project with the support of my supervisors.

In conclusion, I would say the industrial PhD requires more dedication and more effort, since you are in the corporate environment. But this offers also great opportunities for research, networking, practical insights, innovation and facilitates research in combination with practice. Furthermore, I have also learnt that the automotive industry requires manifold skills – it’s not just engineering skills that are important; students and young professionals from all sectors and with a variety of skills are required and needed!

If I were asked whether I would do an industrial PhD again or a university PhD instead, I would choose once more the cooperation with the BMW Group due to the opportunities, interwoven perspectives of theory as well as practice and interesting insights. If you think this mixture of theory and practice might be something for you, check out the career page on bmwgroup.com 

About Richard Turinsky

Richard Turinsky studied MSc International Management at International School of Management (Munich) and MSc Management with Entrepreneurship at Edinburgh Napier University before joining Strathclyde as part of the industrial PhD in cooperation with BMW (ProMotion programme) in May 2021, He is supervised by Professor Dr Beverly Wagner and Dr Clemens Kupke. His PhD topic is "Total Cost of Ownership – the impact of machine learning".