FREE SEMINAR HOW TO DESIGN AND DEFEND YOUR PHD WITH THE IDEA

PUZZLE SOFTWARE

The UAB organises the free seminar How to design and defend your PhD with the Idea
Puzzle software. This seminar, led by Professor Ricardo Morais, will take place in The
Cinema in the UAB (Cvica Square. Campus Bellaterra) on 15th December from 15:30
hours. The seminar has had 199 editions and 4955 participants in 11 countries. It is
annually offered by the European Institute for Advanced Studies in Management (EIASM)
in Brussels as a Doctoral Cross Disciplinary Seminar on Research and Academic Skills.
Santander Universities offers annually an international award of 1000 euros to the best
doctoral research design created with the Idea Puzzle software in a licensed university
(regulations). The deadline for the applications is the 31st of May.

Registration
Until 13th December: Registration
Before the seminar, we recommend the registration at www.ideapuzzle.com

Overview
'PhD' means 'Doctor of Philosophy'. Yet, most doctoral students have never attended a
course on Philosophy of Science, disregarding the link between ontology, epistemology,
and methodology; perceive their research project as a sequence of tasks such as literature
review, methodological choice, and data collection, rather than a system of interdependent
decisions that integrates theory, method, and data; and underestimate the importance of
rhetoric and authorship to focus their research project. The Idea Puzzle software is
therefore an online research design software based on Philosophy of Science that
integrates theory, method, data, rhetoric, and authorship, anticipating the main questions a
supervisor may ask during the course of a PhD. The Idea Puzzle software asks
21 questions, helps answer them, and allows the self-evaluation of each answer. The result
is a research design of about three pages which includes an overall score, a visual map,
and the 21 answers (example). The main benefits of the Idea Puzzle software are the
holistic diagnosis of the strengths and weaknesses of a research project; the structured
communication between students and supervisors; and the innovative teaching of research
methods. The access to the software Idea Puzzle is exclusively online, without installation
in the computer, upon registration with an email from a licensed university. Click
registration at www.ideapuzzle.com to confirm the universities that already offer the Idea
Puzzle software to their students, supervisors, and methodology teachers. The Idea
Puzzle software is available in Portuguese, English, Spanish, and French, including a
demonstration video of the software in each of the languages. Currently, there are around
6000 users from all over the world registered at www.ideapuzzle.com. Santander
Universities offers annually an international award of 1000 euros to the best doctoral
research design created with the Idea Puzzle software in a licensed university
(regulations). The deadline for the applications is the 31st of May.

Audience
Students, supervisors and methodology teachers in any field of knowledge.

Results
After the seminar, participants will be able to design, diagnose, and defend a research
project in any field of knowledge with the Idea Puzzle software. Such results constitute an
investment in life-long research skills.

Topics
1. Research as a system of 21 decisions
2. Theoretical decisions of your research
3. Methodological decisions of your research
4. Empirical decisions of your research
5. Rhetoric decisions of your research
6. Authorial decisions of your research
7. Application to participants research with the Idea Puzzle software

Expert
Ricardo Morais is Professor of Management at Catlica Porto Business School, coordinator
of the doctoral seminar How to design your PhD at the European Institute for Advanced
Studies in Management (EIASM) in Brussels, founder of Idea Puzzle, and alumni of HPI
School of Design Thinking in Germany. He holds a PhD in Strategic Management from the
University of Jyvskyl (first Portuguese PhD in Finland in Social Sciences), having
graduated in Management from the Faculty of Economics of the University of Porto. His
research interests include theory development, critical realism, strategy formation,
multinational management, and design thinking. Since 2002, he has lectured these topics
in over 50 universities in 11 countries. He is a member of the Academy of Management,
Strategic Management Society, and Academy of International Business.

Selected publications
Morais, R. 2014. Rethinking researcher education. Position paper for the inaugural meeting
of Researcher Education and Career Special Interest Group of the European
Association for Research on Learning and Instruction, 21-23 September, Barcelona,
Spain.
Morais, R. 2011. Critical realism and case studies in international business research. In
Piekkari, R. & Welch, C. (Eds.), Rethinking the Case Study Approach in International
Business Research: 63-84, Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing.
Morais, R. 2010. Scientific method. In Mills, A., Durepos, G. & Wiebe, E. (Eds.),
Encyclopedia of Case Study Research. 2: 840-842, Thousand Oaks, California: Sage
Publications.
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