Following the approval of the results of the 5th edition of the Seed Projects competition, the Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Education and Development has approved funding for two exploratory project proposals.

The projects ‘Challenges for the participation of refugee students in Portuguese higher education’ (reference PE-CEIED-4/001/2024 and DOI 10.54499/UIDP/04114/2025) and ‘Inclusive Digital Education: Workshop on reflective practices in digital ethics’ (reference PE-CEIED-4/002/2024 and DOI 10.54499/UIDP/04114/2025) were the proposals with the highest classification following the opinion of the Evaluation Panel.

The project ‘Challenges for the participation of refugee students in Portuguese higher education’ investigates the challenges faced by refugees in accessing and pursuing higher education in Portugal. Despite education being a human right and a means of social integration, only 7% of refugees attend university, compared to over 40% of the non-refugee population (UNHCR, 2024).

The research will analyze the political, legal and institutional factors that hinder this participation and how students deal with these challenges.

The study adopts a decolonial and intercultural perspective, questioning Eurocentrism in equity policies in order to promote reflection on gender, race and class in Portuguese higher education.

The project ‘Inclusive Digital Education: Workshop for reflective practices in digital ethics’ aims to explore the ethical dimension in the use of digital educational technologies, promoting collaborations between Primary School Teachers (PEB) and Higher Education Researchers (HEI). The aim is to develop guiding principles for fair, innovative and responsible pedagogical practices in digital ethics. Specifically, it will seek to identify pedagogical practices at national level and create a workshop of reflective practices, involving PEBs and HEIs.

The research will analyze how teachers mobilize digital ethics, the impact of scientific contributions to social justice at school and how digital ethics can be structured as a social, technological and didactic value in education.