Abstract:

In the Italian system, the research doctorate marks a significant transition point between the training path and the beginning of the academic research career.

However, the adaptation to the European system (starting from the Bologna Process), in which the doctorate represents the EQF level 8 of university education and the opening up to AFAM (other institutions in the field of Higher Education Institutions for Art, Music and Dance) are renewing the reference models and the aims of the doctorate itself. Although according to the Ministry of University and Research ‘The courses aim to provide the skills necessary to carry out highly qualified research activities’, there is still a certain difference between the two systems: ‘The third cycle programmes organised at universities lead to the award of a PhD, while at the end of the courses offered within the AFAM (Higher Education in Art, Music and Dance) sector, an academic research training diploma is awarded’.

The recent funding of the European PNRR Programme co-financed by companies, institutions and private companies (disbursed until 2024) and the opening up of funding to industries – the so-called industrial doctorates – the research and training scenario is profoundly changing.

The launch of a post-disciplinary research doctorate in Experimental Research through Design, Art and Technologies at the Faculty of Design and Art of the Free University of Bolzano was preceded by a reflection and mapping of possible models of a three-year programme, with particular attention to the inter-, multi- and trans-disciplinary experiences already developed in Italy, especially those in which the culture of the project is intertwined with the world of digital technologies.

The paper presents a critical mapping of the different doctoral models (according to the metodology already adopted in similar atctivities such as Margoli, 2010, Wilde, 2020 and Valentine & Farias, 2024), both those originating from the Anglo-Saxon model, oriented towards practice-based research models, and those more oriented towards speculation and theoretical and methodological innovation adopted in Italian universities in the field of design.

The paper aims to open a debate on:
a) the different traditions present in the Italian system,
b) the evolution and future of doctoral programmes in light of the reforms of this level of education and
c) the confluence of different disciplines within inter/multi/trans-disciplinary programmes
d) the critical issues that these contaminations and evolutions highlight.

Keywords:

PhD in Design, post-disciplinary doctoral programme, future of research in design.