Everyone’s a winner when VTI invests in PhD students

By welcoming doctoral students, the Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute (VTI) contributes to skills provision in-house and in transport research in general. “It is vital for us to be an attractive employer at the cutting edge of research,” says VTI Director General Tomas Svensson.

VTI has a long tradition of employing doctoral students and currently has 34 working in the organisation, more than ever before. All of them are undertaking third-cycle studies at a higher education institution, including Linköping University, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Luleå University of Technology and Chalmers University of Technology.

“They are in a third-cycle programme at their university and work for us as doctoral students at the same time. All or part of their doctoral projects are implemented within VTI research projects or as a collaboration between VTI and their university,” explains Svensson,
who believes that there are many good reasons for VTI to welcome doctoral students.

“One important reason is that it provides us with a good recruitment pool, which may sound a little crass but if it wasn’t for VTI’s commitment, PhDs would be a bit thin on the ground in the field of transport research.”

Svensson also believes that VTI is shouldering a broader social responsibility in the research field by getting involved in third-cycle programmes, as many doctoral students go on to other public-sector employers after defending their doctoral thesis, including the Swedish Transport Administration, Swedish Transport Agency and the Government Offices of Sweden.

Another strategically important reason for VTI to take on doctoral students is to invest in new areas of research. These include the legal issues surrounding digitalisation and autonomous vehicles, where there is a need to recruit and develop expertise. A third reason is continuing professional development.

“It’s great that we can attract younger researchers who are dedicated to developing the transport sector in the right direction. It vitalises the entire organisation,” says Svensson.

Research Director Magnus Berglund agrees that doctoral students make a very positive contribution. He currently has 14 doctoral students in his own division.

“They contribute an extraordinary amount in terms of new ideas, new knowledge and new perspectives. They have one foot in academia and one here, something that helps to expand both their networks and ours.”

According to Berglund, VTI is a transparent organisation that welcomes new ideas and opinions, where doctoral students can easily find themselves engaged in heated debate with, for example, a professor of economics during their coffee break. He also feels that senior researchers at VTI consider supervising a doctoral student to be a useful academic qualification, as well personally and professionally developmental.

“Supervision is very concrete and positive and it’s a great opportunity for professional development. Welcoming doctoral students is also very much in line with VTI’s assignment to contribute to skills provision and enhance knowledge in the transport sector.” says Berglund.

“If we can support someone through the defence of their thesis, we are directly performing our assignment and contributing social benefit, as our research is relevant applied research.”

One route to becoming a doctoral student at VTI is to apply for a doctoral studentship offered as part of a collaboration between a higher education institution and VTI. At Berglund’s Traffic Analysis and Logistics Division, it is common for the position to be split fifty-fifty between VTI and the university, although the actual work is implemented in a cohesive joint project.

Mary Catherine Einarsson is one of the doctoral students employed at the Traffic Analysis and Logistics Division. She is studying the transition to biogas for HGVs and is splitting her doctoral studentship between VTI and Linköping University.

“Among other things, my research deals with the motivations, motives and policies affecting the conditions for transitioning HGVs to biogas,” explains Einarsson, who was born and raised in the United States.

While she accepts that doctoral studies can be tough, she describes VTI as an open research environment that offers great opportunities to collaborate within different fields.

“There are many professions represented here and I’m really enjoying it. I’m going to remain working at VTI after I defend my thesis in March 2026; knowing I have a job when I finish is a real luxury.”

The only downside she can think of with a split doctoral studentship is the difficulty of having several Teams and email accounts due to VTI’s high security requirements.

“It’s really no big deal, and of course it’s good to have a high level of data security.”

Text: Johan Granath/ Redakta

Translation: CBG