PHD STUDENTS FROM THE FACULTY OF DESIGN PARTICIPATE IN A WEBINAR AND WORKSHOP ON "SUPPORTING DIVERSITY ON THE PATH TO A PHD DEGREE," HOSTED BY SCHOLARS FROM SAPIENZA UNIVERSITY OF ROME (ITALY)

On October 19, 2026, PhD students enrolled in the "Design" educational-scientific program, along with their academic supervisors, attended a webinar titled "Supporting Diversity on the Path to a PhD Degree: Resources and Tools," presented by scholars from Sapienza University of Rome (Italy).

At the beginning of the meeting, Lorenzo Imbesi, PhD, a lecturer at Sapienza University of Rome and President of the Cumulus International Association (of which KNUTD has been a member since 2021), delivered welcoming words.

The speakers discussed ways to help young researchers pursuing an academic degree in the field of Design achieve success.

Over the past two years, a research team from Sapienza University of Rome has been working on the project Erasmus+ DesignMatters; at the meeting, they presented two sets of resources developed within its framework. DesignMatters is an Erasmus+ project implemented in partnership with the Cumulus association. The project explores how doctoral studies in design can become more inclusive and supportive for both doctoral candidates and their supervisors.

Viktor Malakuczi, a doctoral candidate at Sapienza University of Rome, introduced a handbook designed for doctoral candidates and supervisors. It contains modules covering topics such as culture, gender, ableism (discrimination based on disability), social class, epistemological diversity, and soft skills, and also offers journey maps to visualize the experiences of conducting research and academic supervision.

Sonia Belhaj presented guidelines designed for doctoral programs and educational institutions, covering models for PhD programs in design, co-supervision and joint programs, institutional support, and continuous professional development for supervisors.

Marcello Risolo, PhD, spoke about a handbook for research supervisors.

The team behind the DesignMatters project highlighted that both publications are accompanied by free educational materials, organized into thematic modules, which allows PhD candidates and their supervisors to select the topics most relevant to their specific needs.

Miriam Saviano, a PhD candidate in the joint "Service Design for the Public Sector" program at Sapienza University of Rome, discussed various tools, such as the "PhD Candidate Journey Map", that can support researchers in their academic or teaching endeavors.

At the end of the webinar, Viktor Malakuzi conducted a workshop for PhD students and their academic supervisors on the Figma platform. PhD students Sofiia Nikolaienko, Olehoslav Serbin, Anastasiia Noha, and Anastasiia Yukhymchuk, along with their academic supervisors Kalyna Pashkevych, Danylo Kosenko, Olena Gerasymenko, Nataliia Chuprina, Olha Yezhova, and others, took an active part in the discussion.

Many thanks to our colleagues from Sapienza University of Rome for the invitation!

21.10.2026