The Interdisciplinary Research Centre for Education and Development (CeiED) held an extended meeting with its External Scientific Advisory Board (EAB) on 14 and 15 November 2025, dedicated to strategic reflection on the centre’s future within the new 2025–2030 cycle.

Throughout the first day, the CeiED team and the EAB examined the FCT evaluation report, identifying recommendations to strengthen scientific excellence, internationalisation, and the social impact of the research developed by the centre. The 2025–2030 Strategic Plan was also discussed, including the proposal for a shared centre with the CIE at the University of Madeira, academic and research career policies, and conditions for integrating new researchers, in line with CeiED’s vision as an interdisciplinary and socially committed “knowledge ecosystem”.

The afternoon of 14 October was devoted to the training of early-career researchers, to links with doctoral programmes and teaching, and to the role of policy analysis and knowledge translation through observatories, laboratories, and public science initiatives. Scientific agenda priorities in an increasingly polarised context were also debated, aligned with the strategic domains defined in CeiED’s 2025 Position Paper, namely education and learning societies, inclusion and diversity, digital cultures and human‑centred AI, and sustainability, heritage, and territorial development.

Later that day, the meeting addressed the renewal of CeiED’s leadership, asking the EAB for recommendations on governance models, transition processes, and the participation of early‑career researchers in decision‑making bodies. These discussions were closely linked to the need to diversify funding sources, implement green and gender‑sensitive policies, and promote the well‑being of the centre’s scientific community, as proposed in the Position Paper.

On the second day, the External Advisory Board met internally to consolidate a report with strategic recommendations on CeiED’s mission, internationalisation, open science, impact on public policies, and governance. The document was later presented and discussed in a plenary session with CeiED’s Scientific Council, helping to align the long‑term vision with concrete guidelines for the 2025–2030 period.

CeiED’s External Scientific Advisory Board is composed of André Robert, António Sampaio da Nóvoa, Carlos Alberto Torres, Maria Cristina Bruno, Montserrat Pallarès Barberà, and Xavier Rambla, who was unable to attend this meeting. The session with the EAB also included Professor Ivor Goodson, recently awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Lusófona University.