Telangana Life Sciences, BITS Pilani & RMIT University launch industry-integrated PhD programme

Telangana Life Sciences, BITS Pilani and RMIT University, Australia, have jointly launched an Industry-Integrated PhD & Research Programme to bridge industry and academia and strengthen research-led innovation in the life sciences sector.

D. Sridhar Babu, Minister for Information Technology, Electronics & Communications, Industries & Commerce, and Legislative Affairs, Government of Telangana, attended the launch as the Chief Guest.

By bringing together academic expertise and industry insight, the partnership aims to accelerate the application of research, strengthen workforce capability, and contribute to economic and societal outcomes in both India and Australia.

The programme will enable professionals from leading life sciences Global Capability Centres (GCCs) to undertake globally supervised doctoral research aligned with real-world industry challenges, while continuing in their professional roles. By bringing together industry, academia and government, the initiative aims to create a stronger pipeline of research talent, accelerate industry-led innovation and foster solutions to pressing scientific and technological challenges in the life sciences sector.

Unlike conventional doctoral programmes, where research is largely academic, the industry-integrated PhD & Research Programme is built around real-world industry problems. Participating companies will sponsor employees and research scholars to undertake doctoral research aligned with their business priorities, while BITS Pilani and RMIT University will provide academic supervision, global expertise and research mentorship on top of sponsoring some research scholars from their end as well. This approach is expected to generate commercially relevant research, encourage technology transfer and strengthen collaboration between researchers and industry.

The programme comes at a time when Hyderabad's rapidly expanding life sciences GCC ecosystem is driving demand for highly skilled research talent.