EUA Council for Doctoral Education
Call for participation: 2026-2027 EUA-CDE Thematic Peer Group on ‘Navigating artificial intelligence in doctoral education’
21 April 2026
The call for participation for the 2026-2027 EUA-CDE Thematic Peer Group on ‘Navigating artificial intelligence in doctoral education’ is now open.
Thematic Peer Groups (TPGs) organised by the EUA Council for Doctoral Education (EUA-CDE) provide participating member universities with opportunities for mutual learning on selected topics. They contribute to a common knowledge base on doctoral education structures, policies and practices in Europe.
In recent years, artificial intelligence (AI) has become an increasingly present element in doctoral education, gradually shaping how doctoral research is conducted and supported. AI tools are widely recognised as offering doctoral candidates new opportunities to support research, from accelerating literature mapping and assisting with data analysis to enhancing academic writing through large language models. At the same time, evidence from the 2025 EUA-CDE survey highlights that this growing uptake is accompanied by significant concerns. Nearly half of doctoral education leaders identify AI as a potential challenge to academic integrity.
This evolving situation is further reflected in the policy landscape. While there is broad consensus among survey respondents on the need for guidelines to ensure the responsible use of AI, only a small minority consider existing policies to be sufficient. Many institutions are still in the process of defining their approach on this topic. This points to a dynamic yet uncertain environment, where institutions are actively working to respond to the rapid integration of AI in doctoral education.
To better understand the complexity of this topic, EUA-CDE is establishing a new Thematic Peer Group that will focus on concrete approaches to ensure the responsible use of AI in doctoral education and explore the opportunities and risks of AI in this field.
Please note that participation in EUA-CDE Thematic Peer Groups is reserved to EUA-CDE member universities only. In particular, representatives of EUA-CDE member universities that have already acquired tangible experiences in navigating AI are encouraged to apply.
If you are interested in contributing to this activity, please consult the full call document and submit the application form to ana.maria.peneoasu@eua.eu by 30 June 2026. For more updates concerning this TPG, please do not hesitate to contact Ana-Maria Peneoasu.
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