This programme encourages and accompanies the realisation of rigorous and creative doctoral theses based on design projects. It has been created with an awareness of the importance that research and experimentation in design have both as academic practices and as environments for thinking and creating worlds.

On the other hand, close links that are established between design and other spheres of knowledge and with the communication sector in particular, offer an opportunity to enrich this research not only in technological or industrial terms, but also by delving into its philosophical, social, political, cultural and artistic dimensions.

For this purpose, doctoral training workshops and seminars are organised on a regular basis during the programme; advice and tutoring are offered for doctoral theses in progress; commissions are organised to follow-up and evaluate different projects; and the programme works actively to link the doctoral community with research and knowledge transfer projects.

The programme encourages material and conceptual experimentation, exploration of new research languages and methods, and the ability to hybridise critical and creative practices. Opening up ways of researching and learning from and with design and communication projects, this programme is a pioneer in the promotion of this kind of thesis.

The programme currently offers ten vacancies per year. All candidates must submit a pre-project for research, which will be evaluated by a commission that will take place every year at the end of September.

Doctoral students who enter the programme will be associated with five research groups consolidated by the Generalitat de Catalunya, where they can register doctoral theses and develop research projects: Traducción Audiovisual, Comunicación y Territorio (TRACTE), Learning Media and Social Interactions (LMI), Grupo de Investigación Educativa (GREUV), Instituto de Materialidades Políticas (IMP) and Grupo de Investigación en Diseño y Transformación Social (GREDITS).