As a talent agency that regularly works with scientific and tech companies, In Five Years has seen firsthand how difficult it is for PhDs to transition into industry roles, despite being exactly the kind of talent these companies need. The disconnect slows innovation and leaves highly educated individuals underutilized. That’s why In Five Years, known for launching one digital product each year to support the ecosystem, is introducing Granger.phd: a platform designed to connect PhD talent with companies solving complex scientific and technological challenges. This launch marks the latest milestone in the company’s commitment to launching one complementary digital product per year, products that extend the value of the agency’s core recruitment services and help companies and candidates thrive.
“PhDs are often perceived as too academic or too niche for industry, but that’s a myth,” says Milan, founder of In Five Years. “The reality is: their deep expertise is exactly what companies need. Our analysis of 150 VC-backed scientific scale-ups across Europe shows that nearly all of them have at least one PhD in their leadership team. The problem isn’t relevance, it’s visibility and connection. Granger.phd aims to fix that.”
The platform is grounded in research and practical insights gained through In Five Years’ work with founders and hiring managers in scientific and technical scale-ups. A recent survey of 50 PhD holders revealed that only 14% want to remain in academia, yet most struggle to find relevant industry roles. Meanwhile, tech companies navigating breakthroughs in AI, quantum software, climate tech, and health innovation often don’t know where or how to connect with this talent pool.
Granger.phd changes that. Built as a digital bridge, it allows PhDs to showcase their expertise in an industry-ready format and enables hiring managers to search by skills, research achievements, or scientific domains, bringing a new level of precision to talent matching in technical industries.
“Finding the right, diverse talent with deep expertise is always a challenge,” says Praveen Kumar, Global Talent Acquisition at Multiverse Computing, a leading AI and quantum software company headquartered in San Sebastián. “Platforms like Granger.phd are game changers, they help us connect directly with the scientific minds we need to take our innovations further.”
A Call to PhDs and Companies
The Granger.phd platform invites PhDs across scientific domains to sign up, create a profile, and share it with their network. At the same time, companies are encouraged to post their roles and discover highly specialized talent that might otherwise be hidden in the academic pipeline.
Explore the platform at www.granger.phd and see how In Five Years is redefining the future of work, one digital HR product per year.
