Enhancing Engineering Innovation Through Doctoral Training: A Case Study of NTNU’s IFEL 8001 Course

This paper explores how the doctoral-level course IFEL 8001: Research-Based Innovation for Engineers at NTNU addresses critical gaps in the university’s broader innovation ecosystem. While NTNU emphasizes innovation through research, education, and industry collaboration, challenges such as limited interdisciplinary integration, fragmented innovation processes, and weak alignment between doctoral education and industry needs persist. The study analyses six NTNU innovation reports and course presentations to evaluate IFEL 8001’s role in bridging these gaps. The analysis focuses on the course’s structure, its integration of participants’ ongoing research, and the practical competencies it imparts to PhD candidates. The course succeeds in equipping PhD candidates with essential innovation skills often overlooked in traditional doctoral programs. By incorporating real-world projects as case studies, IFEL 8001 fosters practical skills, industry relevance, and interdisciplinary collaboration, addressing systemic weaknesses in NTNU’s innovation ecosystem. IFEL 8001 demonstrates how structured, practice-oriented doctoral education can overcome institutional gaps in innovation training. It enhances engineering innovation capacity and prepares PhD candidates to drive interdisciplinary solutions and industry-academia partnerships, strengthening NTNU’s role as a leader in research-based innovation.