The National Science Foundation is launching a five-year, $47 million pilot to fund a new four-year Ph.D. model that places more doctoral research work inside private industry. The initiative is designed to give doctoral students experience conducting research for companies rather than only within academic institutions. Under the pilot, universities will fund the first year, while NSF covers the remainder. Private companies are also expected to match funding to support at least one year of dissertation research at company sites. NSF said the program is intended to carry forward recommendations from a White House report on reshaping the national research portfolio, including increased support for individual scientists and investment in AI. The effort is spearheaded by the University-Industry Demonstration Partnership (UIDP) and is expected to train more than 250 Ph.D. students over the five-year period. Participating universities listed include Carnegie Mellon, Dartmouth, the University of Michigan, and the University of Delaware, with example industry partners including Bayer, DuPont, and MassMutual. For higher education leaders, the most immediate shift is workforce alignment. The pilot aims to address the trend of STEM Ph.D. graduates moving to private industry and to build a more structured research training pipeline that prepares students for non-academic roles.