An academic initiative aimed to assist doctoral candidates — across both PhD and DBA — by equipping them with the tools to ensure a high-quality thesis in compliance with sound scientific method.
EDSA was established as an academic initiative with a view to assisting doctoral candidates — PhD and DBA — and equipping them with the tools to produce a high-quality thesis grounded in rigorous research methods.
This is particularly the case where there exist differences in the way post-graduate studies are conducted in countries other than those of the Anglo-American academic traditions. Beyond the Academy, EDSA offers a platform for the exchange of ideas and facilitates cooperation and networking amongst the candidates.
The objective
One of the main objectives of EDSA is to narrow the differences between academic traditions, and to work towards a cohesive, standardised and universally accepted code and conduct of research.
The Academy works closely with candidates on the craft that a doctoral thesis demands — framing the research question, the discipline of method, and building a defensible argument from sound evidence.
This goal facilitates the further dissemination of scientific work: as scholarship comes to enjoy generally accepted research methods, it reaches top-tier journals and appears as monographs with reputable publishing houses.
In this way the work of each candidate is prepared not only to be defended, but to travel — read, cited and built upon across borders.
The founding activity focused on equipping PhD and DBA candidates with the methodological tools needed to produce high-quality doctoral research.
EDSA facilitates cooperation and networking amongst candidates — a standing community for the exchange of ideas across disciplines and borders.
A core activity in recent years: advising universities on accreditation, internationalisation, the design of new academic programmes, and the creation of in-house think tanks and research centres.
Through the Eurasian Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Social Sciences, EDSA sustains enquiry across a set of connected international fields.
Fields of enquiry
The interdisciplinary research the Academy supports clusters around four connected international fields.
An independent academy
EDSA is an independent academic initiative, which the Harrington Centre featured among its international events in September 2018. It has continued to gather doctoral researchers in the years since.
Programme partner