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Key figures - research

Here you can find key figures for research at Aalborg University.

Number of PhD students

PhD education is research training and advanced studies following a Master’s degree. Aalborg University offers PhD education within four different fields under four faculties.

A PhD programme comprises three years of full-time study and must be based on a Master’s degree. Within the tree years, sufficient time must be set aside for individual research work and preparation of the thesis. Furthermore, students must gain experience with teaching activities or other types of knowledge dissemination.

When the thesis has been submitted, an assessment committee will be appointed, and they will give their recommendation after the public defence. The PhD degree is awarded to scholars who have satisfactorily completed their research training and submitted a thesis.

The tables below illustrate the total number of PhD students and the total PhD student intake for each faculty. The numbers are calculated each year on 31 December.

PhD students 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023
Humanities and Social Sciences 156 126 123 113 114
Medicine 216 215 210 209 226
TECH 194 197 195 215 215
Engineering 272 283 292 289 294
Total 838 821 820 826 849

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PhD student intake

The table below shows the number of PhD students intake at each faculty. The number is calculated on the basis of the entire calendar year.

PhD intake 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023
Humanities and Social Sciences 24 24 33 33 27
Medicine 54 53 69 53 74
TECH 60 62 61 71 59
Engineering 74 92 96 87 80
Total 212 231 259 244 240

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PhD degrees

The table below shows the number of PhD degrees awarded at each faculty. The number is calculated on the basis of the entire calendar year.

PhD degrees 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023
Humanities and Social Sciences 28 45 27 30 19
Medicine 33 53 56 50 49
TECH 35 30 42 44 56
Engineering 62 72 70 57 49
Total 158 200 195 181 187

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Research publications?

The number of research publications is a key figure representing the production of the University. You may study the University’s many publications at the?AAU research portal.

Research publications? 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022
Humanities and Social Sciences 1,827 1,515 1,498 1,334 1,117
Medicine 1,299 1,353 1,501 1,643 1,764
Engineering 1,982 2,079 2,171 2,056 1,611
TECH 1,185 1,083 1,182 1,208 1,124
Total 6,293 6,030 6,352 6,241 5,616

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Activities

Aalborg University’s knowledge exchange and cooperation with the surrounding world may be found in the national statistics on the commercialisation of research results published by the The Danish Agency for Science, Technology and Innovation since 2005.

Each year, researchers at Aalborg University generate world class inventions and research results with great commercial potential on the basis of research undertaken at the University and research collaborations with companies and other research institutions.

The focus of the Technology Transfer Office is the transfer of new technologies to the business community according to the Act on inventions at public research institutions, applying to inventions made after 2000.

Each year, the Technology Transfer Office receives a number of reports on new inventions, and a large part of these turn into commercial technology transfers.

Activities 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022
Reported inventions 68 71 81 57 66 58 41
Sold and licensed inventions 41 42 31 54 39 34 -
Spin-out companies 1 1 2 5 4 2 -
Patent applications 14 16 11 8 7 6 12

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