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Date:
From 18 Mar 2026 until 20 Mar 2026
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Deadline for Applications:
13 Feb 2026
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Location:
Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa, Campo Grande 1749-016 Lisboa
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Duration:
18 hours (contact hours)
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Schedule:
9h30-16h30 (with lunch break)
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Lecturer or Responsible:
Inês Campos (CE3C-SET), João Limão (CE3C-SET) & Filipe Moreira Alves (CE3C-SET)
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Department Responsible:
Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa
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Nº (min - max) Students:
10-20
Objectives
- To equip researchers from diverse research fields to apply data collection and analysis methods for qualitative and participatory research
- Design and implement effective interview guides, surveys and field diaries to collect text data
- Design and implement effective focus groups and participatory workshops, with attention to sampling, participants’ recruitment approaches, facilitation methods and best practices
- Analyse qualitative data through thematic coding and topic analysis and produce relevant data visualisations.
Participants must be present at 85% of the contact hours, and actively participate in all activities.
This course can give credits to PhD programmes at CIÊNCIAS or programmes with partnership from CIÊNCIAS and other institutions with 6h-7h of contact hours per ECT, as a function of specific requirements. For these students, in addition to the exercises done during the week, delivering a written report after the course is mandatory. Such report is also advised for other students requesting accreditation of the course in their institutions.
Minimum requirements: Master and PhD Students are welcome.
Directed to: Although the course can be useful to researchers from diverse areas, it is specifically designed to support researchers from the STEM disciplines in methods for collecting and analysing qualitative data (text, video, images) collected through diverse methods involving human participants (i.e., interviews, field diaries, surveys and workshops)
General plan
The course will take place over three days. It will include presentations on qualitative methods, drawing on practical examples and involving students in practical and experimental exercises.
Day 1
Day one will focus on extractive data collection approaches, namely interviews, surveys and field diaries, providing information on how to create interview guides, good practices in conducting interviews, how to create open questions in surveys preventing biases and ensuring good practices in ethical standards. This day will also introduce methods such as field diaries and booklets that can be combined with participatory approaches. Students will experiment with hypothetical scenarios to develop their interview guides.
Day 2
Day two will dive into co-creation and participatory methods. First, highlighting good practices in sampling, selecting and recruiting research participants. Second, presenting some methods (e.g., World Café, Fishbowl) for participatory engagement and discussions, based on empirical cases and exercises with students. Third, the class will focus on facilitation practices and guidelines for data collection and harvesting in participation workshops.
Day 3
Day three will focus on methods for analysing qualitative data from interviews, surveys and workshops, with a focus on two methods: Thematic Analysis and Topic Modelling. Students will also be guided in short exercises. Ideas and tools for visualising qualitative data will also be provided.
Fees
Free for 1st year PhD students in Doctoral programmes at CIÊNCIAS (e.g. Biology), Biodiversity, Genetics and Evolution (BIODIV ULisboa; UPorto), Biology and Ecology of Global Changes (BEAG ULisboa, UAveiro) and Sustainability Science (ULisboa, several institutions), when the course counts credits for their formation, in which case the delivery of a final report done after the course is mandatory; the course is also free for more advanced PhD students of the BIODIV programme (ULisboa or UPorto); 25 € for more advanced PhD students of CE3C; 35 € for PhD students of the PEERS network (CFE); 70 € for CIÊNCIAS Master students and unemployed; 90 € for BTI, BI and other PhD students; 125 € for professionals and postdocs.
When the maximum number of students is reached, 10 vacancies will be available for non-paying 1st year PhD students mentioned above, being, by order of preference, students from: 1) CE3C; 2) BIODIV (not from CE3C); 3) CIÊNCIAS (not from CE3C); 4) Sustainability Science (not from CE3C or CIÊNCIAS); 5) BEAG (not from CE3C or CIÊNCIAS).
How to Apply
Candidates should complete the APPLICATION FORM, which will be available in this section when the call is open.
The form is strictly confidential, as explained in its introduction, and the data are required because the CE3C Advanced Courses are also offered as part of the PRR programme of CIÊNCIAS.
When filling out the form, mind to:
- FILL ALL THE MANDATORY FIELDS;
- UPLOAD CV AND MOTIVATION LETTER, both mandatory; use the names as instructed;
- If you want to resume later, SAVE the form; otherwise, you will need to fill everything out again;
- At the end, SUBMIT the form before exiting.
If you have any questions, please contact the coordinator of the CE3C Advanced Courses, Margarida Matos (mmmatos@fc.ul.pt), and the teacher, Inês Campos (iscampos@ciencias.ulisboa.pt).
