Diversity in Doctoral Education: Subjects, Contexts and Epistemic Pluralism in the Production of Scientific Knowledge

9–10 July 2026

The Interdisciplinary Research Center for Education and Development (CeiED) announces the 16th Researchers’ Meeting, to be held on 9 and 10 July 2026. This edition invites the academic community to engage in a critical reflection on diversity in doctoral education, considering it not as an accessory element, but as a structuring dimension of contemporary ways of training researchers and producing knowledge.

Recent debates on doctoral education have emphasized that doctoral programmes now host increasingly heterogeneous populations, shaped by diverse social backgrounds, academic trajectories, linguistic affiliations, professional engagements, and future expectations. In this context, diversity goes beyond the social composition of doctoral candidates: it is also reflected in the plurality of experiences, perspectives, linguistic repertoires, and ways of questioning reality that inform research processes. Thinking about doctoral education today therefore requires acknowledging that the opening of doctoral and postgraduate education to new publics presents institutional challenges, but also creates conditions for a genuine epistemological enrichment of science.

In this regard, reflections promoted by EUA-CDE (2022) have shown that the expansion of doctoral education creates space for greater diversity and inclusion, while also highlighting challenges related to the integration of underrepresented groups in the production of scientific knowledge. It is further emphasized that multilingualism and diversity of backgrounds are not obstacles to research quality; on the contrary, they can broaden analytical horizons, expand research perspectives, and strengthen the social relevance of doctoral training.

Within this framework, the UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science (2021) is particularly relevant, as it advocates for more accessible, inclusive, collaborative scientific systems that are attentive to dialogue among different communities and knowledge systems. This perspective aligns with the Convention against Discrimination in Education (1960), which affirms the principle of equal opportunities in access to education, and with the Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions (2005), which reaffirms intercultural openness and equitable access to knowledge as fundamental conditions for more just and democratically sustainable societies.

It is within this context that the 16th CeiED Researchers’ Meeting proposes to discuss the relationship between diversity, educational contexts, and epistemic pluralism in the processes of scientific knowledge production. In particular, it seeks to understand how different trajectories, affiliations, and experiences influence the construction of research objects and theoretical-methodological choices, and how higher education and research institutions can foster more inclusive, reflective, and intellectually plural environments.

The meeting thus aims to serve as a space for critical reflection on the challenges and possibilities of contemporary doctoral education, bringing together contributions that problematize the relationships between science, advanced training, cognitive justice, institutional responsibility, and social transformation.

Participants

CeiED invites undergraduate, master’s, doctoral, and postdoctoral students, as well as researchers and faculty members from Universidade Lusófona, and students from partner institutions with established agreements in related fields, to take part in this meeting. The aim is to foster a broad debate on the present and future of doctoral education. More than a space for presenting work, this meeting seeks to establish itself as a forum for discussion and exchange on the role of diversity in renewing academic research and in building a more open, plural, and socially relevant science.

9 July

10 July

Abstract Submission

Submissions are invited for abstracts of individual research projects (ongoing or completed), as well as collective projects developed within the framework of curricular units, ReLeCo, or UNESCO Chair Study Groups. Abstracts must include the following elements:

• research question
• objectives
• theoretical and methodological framework
• results or conclusions (if available)

Each proposal must include:

• a title
• 3 to 5 keywords
• must not exceed 300 words (excluding spaces)

Presentation duration: 7 minutes
Submission platform: Even3

Full Paper Submission

Participants who wish to be included in the conference proceedings may submit a full paper in digital format.

• The file must be submitted in .doc (Microsoft Word) format and may be written in Portuguese or English.
• The text must follow the guidelines of the Organizing Committee, whose template is available on the submission platform.
• The Organizing Committee reserves the right not to publish texts that do not comply with the established formal criteria.

Important Dates

• Abstract submission: until 31 May 2026
• Notification of acceptance: 23 June 2026
• Full paper submission for proceedings: until 30 September 2026

Registration

Participation in the meeting is free of charge, but registration is mandatory HERE.

Dissemination

We look forward to your participation in enriching this essential debate on doctoral education. To support the visibility and documentation of the 16th CeiED Researchers’ Meeting, participants are invited to tag CeiED on Instagram (@ceied.ulusofona) and use the hashtag #16encontroCeiED in their social media posts.

Coordinators

• Lucimar Dantas
• Marcelo Lages Murta

Organizing Committee

• Adel Pausini
• Catarina Nunes de Almeida
• Carla Galego
• Felisberto Costa
• Henrique Godoy
• Lucimar Dantas
• Marcelo Lages Murta
• Rosa Serradas
• Sónia Cardoso

Scientific Committee

• Adel Pausini
• Alcina de Oliveira Martins
• Ana Paula Silva
• Ana Sofia António
• Ana Vale Pereira
• André Freitas
• António Teodoro
• Carla Galego
• Catarina Nunes de Almeida
• Cristina Sin
• Dulce Franco
• Elisabete Pinto da Costa
• Elsa Estrela
• Ernesto Candeias Martins
• Filomena Parada
• Gorete Pereira
• Inês Vieira
• Jacinto Serrão
• João Filipe Matos
• João Robert Nogueira
• João Sampaio Maia
• José Viegas Brás
• Judite Primo
• Liliana Rodrigues
• Louise dos Santos Lima
• Lucimar Dantas
• Luiza Baldan
• Luzia Lima-Rodrigues
• Marcelo Lages Murta
• Margarida Belchior
• Maria Constança Vasconcelos
• Maria de Nazaré Castro Coimbra
• Maria Neves Gonçalves
• Maria Odete Emygdio da Silva
• Mário Antas
• Mário Moutinho
• Marta Maria Jecu
• Nuno Fraga
• Patrícia Ferraz de Matos
• Pedro Jesus
• Regina Duarte
• Rosa Serradas Duarte
• Sofia Micaela Castro da Silva
• Sónia Cardoso
• Teresa Teixeira Lopo
• Vitor Duarte Teodoro

Contact

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