All PhD candidates required to report all Industry Engagement undertaken during candidature

Collaborating or working with industry during your candidature is referred to as Industry Engagement and the industry partners are referred to as End Users.

Industry Engagement can take place as a range of activities and vary across faculties and Industries.

What can be considered Industry Engagement

• Research activities related to your PhD
• Paid or unpaid internship
• Employment in the industry or field relating to your research area
• Employment by an industry partner relating to your research area
• Field work with an a group or organisation outside of UC related to your research area (paid or unpaid or part of your PhD research project)
• PhD fully funded or co-funded by an industry group or organisation
• PhD project developed in collaboration with an industry group or organisation
• Non UC supervisor from industry for some or all of your candidature
• Research training or development with an industry partner

What is considered an Industry Partner (end user)

“Industry” refers broadly to any organisation outside the university — including government, not-for-profits and community organisations, private sector partners, and collaborations where research expertise was applied.

• Government bodies: local, state or federal departments, political parties
• Businesses: start ups, corporations, consultancies
• Not For Profits and non government: charities, advocacy or support organisations
• Community groups: social services, cultural groups

The only exception is engagement with another university, which does not count as an industry partner.

Engagement details you will need to complete form:

• How many days per week of activity
  • If irregular days over a period, use the average per week
  • 1 day = 7 hours
• Start and end date of activity with industry partner
• If over 60 days with industry partner did the agreement for this activity happen in your first 18m of candidature?
• If over 60 days and agreed to in first 18 months of candidature, ensure you have a copy of this agreement (either formal or informal)

You will need to ensure you can provide (when asked) any documentation that evidence the engagement you had – this can be an email chain as well as any formal documentation eg; research contract, internship agreement, collaborative agreement, contract/part time or full time employment contract.

You must report via the End User Engagement Form in MyUC

Go to:

MyUC / Graduate Research / right hand side column, click on End-user engagement report  

This form captures any activities where you worked with or for an external organisation in a research capacity.

• All PhD candidates must complete the form – even if you did not engage with industry
• You will be prompted to complete the form by GRS annually and once you have submitted your thesis
• The form can be edited so you can update if you have new industry engagement each year
• When you report an Industry Engagement in the form, your supervisor will be asked to approve the activity

We understand there are many activities that can be called Industry Engagement and that it can be confusing. GRS are here to help understand what you can and are required to report.