Doctoral education was primarily designed to answer the human resources needs of academia. However, nowadays, increasing numbers of doctorate holders seek employment outside academia. Accordingly, doctoral education can be one of the means by which universities take part in the development of industry in their regions. This study explores whether and how doctoral-level skills are being adapted to the needs of local industrial employers in two different contexts. Two research and science parks situated next to research-intensive universities in Sweden and Spain were chosen as cases for an exploratory and comparative study. In these parks, local industrial employers conduct R&D activities that make them potentially attractive destinations for doctoral graduates. Similarities in the cases were found regarding the process of adaptation of doctoral education at the adjacent universities to meet the industrial employers' needs in the parks. Discrepancies are also highlighted regarding stages of development, institutional settings, geography and culture. Implications for several stakeholders are formulated to improve the process analysed in the study concerning better alignment of doctoral education with industrial employers' need for generic skills.

Increased public investment in PhD education to drive innovation has led to a recent rapid growth in the number of PhD graduates. Academic labour markets have not developed at the same pace. An ever-larger share of the graduates is finding employment in industry. The transition from academia to industry is not always easy. The present study aims to provide insights into the role played by PhDs' networks in the job search after graduation. Our data comprise interviews with industry-employed doctoral graduates in STEM disciplines from Sweden, Norway and the UK. Our findings show that PhDs' autonomously built personal networks can help match their specific scientific expertise with labour market demands. We distinguish country-specific patterns and characteristics of the transition, in which regional career paths are more (Scandinavia) or less (the UK) noticeable. The study has practical implications, in particular for PhD students and graduates, related to their career orientation.

Rogaland region, located at the southwestern coasts of Norway, has undergone tremendous economic development during the last half a century due to becoming the base for petroleum industry of this most oil-rich country of Europe. The history of higher education sector in the region has been very much shaped and influenced by that economic development history. In this article, we try to examine to what extent and in what form the main university of the region, University of Stavanger (UiS), has contributed to the economic developments in the region by corresponding to the educational, research and innovation needs of its main economic sectors. After describing the highlights of the economic and academic developments in the region, we use established frameworks from the regional innovation systems and university-industry relations literature in order to analyze whether and how the UiS has played a role in addressing the regional innovation system requirements of the sectors deemed currently as priority sectors for Rogaland. Based on that, we draw policy implications for better harmony between regional innovation system policies and higher education policies.