Department

Research

Staff

Collaborate

Laboratories

Magazine Contacts
IT

PhD programme

The PhD Design takes up the legacy of the Doctoral Programme in Industrial Design, launched in 1990 at the Politecnico di Milano as the first doctoral programme entirely dedicated to design at an international level.

The PhD Design takes up the legacy of the Doctoral Programme in Industrial Design, launched in 1990 at the Politecnico di Milano as the first doctoral programme entirely dedicated to design at an international level.

The Doctoral Program in Design operates within the PhD School ↗ of the Politecnico di Milano.
It trains candidates to understand the nature of design research and related methodological approaches, how research is designed, planned and developed, established and new application domains and impacts.
The Department also collaborates with other Doctoral programs at the Politecnico di Milano and other national and international institutions.

The goal of the PhD in Design is to train researchers to develop their abilities to positively direct processes of change and promote innovation through research in the field of design.
The doctoral program consists of courses, field training activities and international internships and offers support and mentorship for research performance and the development of candidates' doctoral theses.

The training course is geared toward transferring the candidates' knowledge of research practices through an in-depth study of methodological aspects, research planning and design, and impact orientation and evaluation, leading them to the development of original doctoral research that can contribute to increasing scientific knowledge in the field of design.
Trained profiles find employment in Italy and abroad, both in university and research institutions and in other public and private organizations and companies.

Along with the educational experience, the doctoral program offers the opportunity to engage with a wide network of national and international doctorates and is part of a network involving five of the most important universities internationally: Aalto University (Finland), Carnegie Mellon University (USA), ID at the Illinois Institute of Technology (USA), Imperial College London (UK), TU Delft (Netherlands).

Visit the website of the PhD in Design ↗

The Department of Design also participates through its faculty in the PhD in Science, Technology and Policy for Sustainable Change (STEP Change), which aims to prepare expert figures in leading transformation processes towards sustainability within public and private organizations.
It also collaborates in other tracks within national doctoral programs and through its own professors' involvement as dissertation co-supervisors, reviewers and lecturers of training modules - in several other Doctoral programs internationally.

Visit the website of the PhD in STEP Change ↗