Research Seminar - Marya Becharov
2026-02-02 14:30 - 16:00 (Europe/Lisbon) | TBD, Rua da Holanda, Campus de Carcavelos - Nova SBE, Lisboa, 2775-405, Portugal
Professor of Organisations and Impact and Academic Director of the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship, Said Business School, Oxford University

Professor Becharov will present a paper co-authored with Meng Zhao

Title: The intra-organizational dynamics of social innovation adaptation: Grameen Bank goes to China

Abstract: A central challenge for organizations seeking to scale social innovations involves “adaptation fidelity”—tailoring innovations to heterogenous contexts without compromising core principles. Because employees often disagree over whether and how innovations should be changed, intra-organizational dynamics likely shape the emergence and spread of adaptation fidelity, but this process remains poorly understood as existing work has focused on the role of external stakeholder engagement. Our qualitative, inductive case study of implementing the Grameen Bank microcredit model in China unpacks the intra-organizational dynamics of adaptation fidelity. Facing implementation challenges, many employees engaged in “expedient adaptation”, abandoning prescribed practices in order to quickly enlist borrowers. In contrast, a few engaged in “principled adaptation”, creatively adjusting prescribed practices while preserving the Grameen principle of developing social capital. As expedient adaptation spread and precipitated a crisis, principled adapters enlisted the founder, converted colleagues, and formalized their approach, ultimately enabling the organization to achieve adaptation fidelity and scale the Grameen model across China. Building on these findings, we develop a process model explaining adaptation fidelity as an emergent outcome of interdependent, reinforcing loops involving varying forms of adaptation, with implications for research on social innovation and systems perspectives in organization theory.

EVERY THURSDAY: Open Garden – Guardians’ Seedling Maternity
2026-02-26 10:00 - 13:00 | Community Garden at Nova SBE, Rua da Holanda, Carcavelos, Cascais, 2775-405, Portugal
The Community Garden at Nova SBE is a living laboratory for regenerative community design. Join our Open Garden Mornings and help care for the Seedling Maternity, our plant nursery that grows seedlings for the garden.

Contribute hands-on by sowing seeds, transplanting seedlings, watering, or helping maintain the garden infrastructure. Participation is flexible, join whenever you can, stay for as long as you like, and if you are a student enroled at the Role to Play, earn 3 Role to Play points per 2-hour session.

No prior experience needed, just enthusiasm and a willingness to get your hands in the soil!

Design Gym - Collaborative Ideation: Turning Ideas into Impactful Solutions
2026-02-26 12:30 - 14:00 | Nova SBE, Rua da Holanda, Lisbon, Lisbon
In this hands-on workshop, we’ll explore practical ideation techniques to generate creative solutions that are grounded in research, user needs, and real-world constraints.

What to Expect

Learning about ideation principles and some tools for generating creative ideas

Case studies

Hands-on activity in teams to practice collaborative idea generation

The new Design Gym is a series of fast-paced, hands-on workshops designed to help you build and expand your design toolkit. Each 90-minute session focuses on practical, in-demand skills across a range of design practices.

But it doesn’t stop there. After each workshop, participants gain access to dedicated office hours where they can get personalized feedback from the facilitators, explore how to apply their new skills to real-world projects, and develop stronger portfolios and case studies.

Whether you’re sharpening your current capabilities or breaking into new territory, the Design Gym is here to help you confidently practice, explain, and showcase your growth as a designer.

Register here through Eventbrit Office Gym → March 4Facilitator: Joana Lima Villas

PRICENOVA Students = 3eurosExternal Public = 5 euros

Joana Lima Villas is Head of Design and a Senior UX Designer with over 12 years of experience building products, teams, and design systems across Web3, fintech, media, and technology. She works at the intersection of strategy and execution, focusing on scaling design, developing people, and embedding design thinking within organizations. She is passionate about leadership grounded in clarity, empathy, and collaboration. Outside of work, her three children remind her daily that curiosity and emotion are the best tools a designer can have.

DESIS Lab and ERA Chair in Social Innovation at NovaSBE

erachair@novasbe.pt

Research Seminar - Hahrie Han
2026-03-02 14:30 - 16:00 | TBD, Rua da Holanda, Campus de Carcavelos - Nova SBE, Lisboa, 2775-405, Portugal
Professor of Political Science at Johns Hopkins University and inaugural Director of SNF Agora

Title: Estrategies for Engaging People in Social Action: Lessons from American Evangelicalism

Abstract: One of the big challenges for social change efforts around the world is the challenge of pulling people off the sidelines into public life. What kind of strategies are most effective for getting people engaged? This talk draws on lessons from evangelical megachurches in America. These megachurches pull more people together on a weekly basis than any other civic or political organization in the United States, and have a number of lessons that are applicable outside the faith context.

The Research Seminar Series is organized and sponsored by the ERA Chair in Social Innovation in partnership with the Management and Organizations Group at Nova School of Business and Economics.

Stay tuned for upcoming talks from the Research Seminar Series.

Threads of a Practice Exhibition
2026-03-11 12:30 - 17:00
Two years ago, Homelore began as a question whispered within these very walls. What if we leveraged ancestral knowledge from diaspora women and guided them to become the authors of their own stories in thread? What if the needle could become a tool for claiming space, for stitching presence into places designed to render certain lives invisible?This exhibition traces the growth of an idea into an organisation. What started as a small incubator project has blossomed into a platform where artisans in Lisbon gather, create, and redefine what it means to carry tradition forward.Here, you will witness the process—the sketches, the experiments, the conversations held in thread. You will see technique evolve as stitches from Punjab meet those from Bangladesh, as Sindhi patterns converse with Portuguese influences. You will encounter the archives of our neighbourhood maps, and glimpse the new directions our hands are reaching toward.Homelore at two years remains rooted in its origin of this university, and this city, but its branches extend outward. The work continues. The stitches multiply. The question that started it all now echoes beyond these walls, carried by the women who stitch their answers into being.

A project led by Riddhi Varma, a recent graduate in Masters’ in Management and current DESIS Lab Fellow, Homelore is a women-led collective exploring evolving neocultures shaped by diasporic experiences through traditional craft techniques.

Their practice centers on collaboration, bringing together female artisans from diverse diasporic backgrounds, creating works that weave together personal narratives, shared histories, and the vibrant textures of life in a globalized world.

Agenda:

Exhibition: “ Threads of a Practice’.”

Opening: March 11 at 12:30 PM

Guided tour of the exhibition led by Ridhi and an artisan

A toast to mark the moment

Date & Time: March 11, 2026 to April 11, 2026Location: NOVA SBE Carcavelos – K.onnect Zone

Check here

Open Day at the Community Garden | Dia Aberto no Jardim Comunitário
2026-03-14 10:00 - 12:00 | Community Garden at Nova SBE, Rua da Holanda, Carcavelos, Cascais, 2775-405, Portugal
PT BELOWOn March 14th, we invite you to step into our Community Garden at Nova SBE as a visitor and as an active participant in a living regenerative system!

This Open Day is designed as an immersive experience where students and community members:

Engage in meaningful hands-on garden activities

Learn abour our planting area and Guardian’s program

Connect with a growing network of changemakers

You can join us anytime from 10am to 12pm! We want to introduce you to our special space and have you enjoy it and dream with us!

See you in the Garden!🌿 Registrations HERE

—–No dia 14 de março convidamos-te a entrar no nosso Jardim Comunitário na Nova SBE — como visitante e como participante ativo num sistema vivo e regenerativo.

Este Dia Aberto foi pensado como uma experiência imersiva e acessível a estudantes e membros da comunidade que queiram descobrir como a sustentabilidade se transforma em prática.

Durante a manhã poderás:

Participar em atividades práticas no jardim

Conhecer melhor as nossas áreas de plantação e o desenho do espaço

Descobrir o Programa de Guardiões e como podes integrar

Conectar com uma rede crescente de pessoas com propósito

Imaginar novas possibilidades para espaços regenerativos na universidade

Podes juntar-te a nós em qualquer momento entre as 10h00 e as 12h00 — ficar 20 minutos ou toda a manhã.

Queremos apresentar-te este espaço especial, que o possas desfrutar e sonhar connosco sobre o seu futuro.

Esperamos por ti no jardim! 🌿 Inscrições AQUI.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/open-day-at-the-community-garden-dia-aberto-no-jardim-comunitario-tickets-1983081913386?aff=oddtdtcreator

Embroidery Workshop
2026-03-17 12:00 - 15:00
A hands-on, guided session exploring traditional stitches like the Chain stitch. Participants will learn the meditative rhythm of embroidery while discussing its historical journey across borders and its role in reclaiming local spaces. No experience needed, all materials will be available to use in class.

Homelore at two years remains rooted in its origin of this university, and this city, but its branches extend outward. The work continues. The stitches multiply. The question that started it all now echoes beyond these walls, carried by the women who stitch their answers into being.A project led by Riddhi Varma, a recent graduate in Masters’ in Management and current DESIS Lab Fellow, Homelore is a women-led collective exploring evolving neocultures shaped by diasporic experiences through traditional craft techniques.

Their practice centers on collaboration, bringing together female artisans from diverse diasporic backgrounds, creating works that weave together personal narratives, shared histories, and the vibrant textures of life in a globalized world.

Agenda:

Workshop: “ Threads of a Practice’.”

Date & Time: March 17, 2026 – 12h – 15hLocation: NOVA SBE Carcavelos – D134

Design Gym - Antecipatory innovation to design human-centered public services and policies
2026-04-08 12:30 - 14:00 | Nova SBE, Rua da Holanda 1, Carcavelos, Lisbon
Overview

Despite our good intentions when designing a new service or a public policy, it is essential to understand the impacts associated with the implementation of the service or public policy. This is why it is essential when developing new services to embrace an anticipatory innovation stance: imagine the future impact of the imagined solutions and consider potential unintended consequences.

In this workshop, we will explore consequence scanning, an instrument that allows you to appeal to the different points of view brought by all stakeholders in a project to anticipate and map all the consequences, positive or negative, that partners anticipate for its implementation. The information generated with these processes is very useful not only to mitigate possible negative impacts of a project, but also to create spaces of opportunity to expand its positive consequences.

What to Expect

In this session, you will be able to understand the importance of anticipatory innovation (and foresight) in the implementation of services and to know how to apply the methodology for consequence scanning. This workshop is of interest for individuals interested in innovation in the public sector and / or in anticipatory innovation and foresight methodologies (in all sectors)

The new Design Gym is a series of fast-paced, hands-on workshops designed to help you build and expand your design toolkit. Each 90-minute session focuses on practical, in-demand skills across a range of design practices.

But it doesn’t stop there. After each workshop, participants gain access to dedicated office hours where they can get personalized feedback from the facilitators, explore how to apply their new skills to real-world projects, and develop stronger portfolios and case studies.

Whether you’re sharpening your current capabilities or breaking into new territory, the Design Gym is here to help you confidently practice, explain, and showcase your growth as a designer.

Room: B131https://www.eventbrite.pt/e/antecipatory-innovation-to-design-human-centered-public-services-tickets-1984129909972?aff=oddtdtcreator

PRICENOVA Students = 3 eurosExternal Public = 5 euros

Office Gym → 14 April (online)Facilitator: Jorge Lagarto

DESIS Lab and ERA Chair in Social Innovation at NovaSBE

erachair@novasbe.pt

Jorge Lagarto is founding member and currently Director of LabX – Center for Innovation in the Public Sector. After starting his career working in consulting and project management, he spent many years in the public sector, particularly in the areas of innovation, digital transformation, and servicedesign. He holds a degree in Environmental Engineering and a specialization in eLearning Pedagogy and Instructional Design.

Workshop: Plantas & Neurociência | Plants & Neuroscience
2026-04-09 10:30 - 12:30
Why do plants make us feel so good, and what can we learn from them?

This 2-hour workshop explores what happens in our brain when we engage with nature , covering attention, creativity, stress regulation, mood and relationships. We’ll combine neuroscience insights with hands-on gardening, so you leave with both understanding and practical tools to connect more deeply with plants and nature.

No science background needed, just curiosity and a willingness to get your hands in soil.

About the facilitator

Marion Oberhuber,Neuroscience PhD and founder of The Plant Wisdom Project. Works in mental health tech and on the side, loves exploring how plants restore attention, unlock creativity and help us think differently. Follow @plantwisdomproject for more.

Get your spot here – Workshop: Plantas & Neurociência | Plants & Neuroscience

Design Jam for Impact
2026-04-11 10:30 - 17:00
Overview

Design jam for impact: Let’s collaborate and co-create to tackle social and sustainability issues.

Join us for our 5 edition of the DESIGN JAM FOR IMPACTorganized by the DESIS Lab @ Nova SBE and the DESIS Lab @ FAUL.This is an amazing opportunityto engage in multi-disciplinary collaboration to design, iterate and refine impactful solutions to address social and environmental issues.

WHAT WILL WE DO

The day will be fast-paced and full of hands-on activities to allow you collaboratively generate innovative solutions to help six projects (from NovaSBE and FAUL students and social entrepreneurs tackling social and environmental issues).

We will practice design thinking and learn practical tools to nurture your creative problem-solving and develop meaningful and sustainable solutions to tackle complex social and environmental issues in our communities.

Design thinking is a powerful approach to help develop insights into problems that generate solutions that may otherwise remain hidden to you.

WHAT WILL YOU LEARN?

Multidisciplinary communication and collaboration, journey maps, prototyping, scenarios and storytelling.

HOW?

As a participant, you will be a creative collaborator. As such you will work with 6 projects which address a social and / or environmental issue. They are passionate by their idea but they also believe in the power of collaboration and diversity, and are looking for creative inputs and different perspectives.

The workshop will be facilitated mainly by Anne-Laure Fayard (Nova SBE) and Inês Veiga (FAUL)(See below to know more about our team).

WHO?

If you are passionate about impact and want to hone your design thinking skills, flex your creative muscles and nurture your collaborative power, sign up and join us on April 11th!

PROJECTS:Participant projects will be announced soon

This event is OPEN to all people interested in collaborating and co-creating for social impact. We have a limited number of seats.

-> Lunch will be provided

OUR TEAM

Anne-Laure Fayard, ERA Chair Professor of Social Innovation, coordinator of Nova DESIS (design for social innovation and sustainability) Lab, and Visiting Research Professor at NYU …. And most of all a passionate design thinker who cares for impact!

Inês Veiga, Assistant Professor at FA-ULisboa, designer and designer researcher crossing graphic design with intervention and local and social causes.

We will also have the chance to have the participation of a few special mentors both from DESIS Lab@NovaSBE and DESIS Lab @ FAUL mentors:

-> Graziela Sousa, designer, DESIS @ FAUL-> António Gorgel, designer, DESIS @ FAUL-> Joana Lima Villas, UX design lead, DESIS Lab @ Nova SBE mentor-> Maria Folque Guimarães, Community Manager at Nova SBE Innovation Ecosystem, DESIS Lab @ Nova SBE mentor

Get your tickets here

Research Seminar - Marion Poetz
2026-04-13 14:30 - 16:00 | TBD, Rua da Holanda, Campus de Carcavelos - Nova SBE, Lisboa, 2775-405, Portugal
Associate Professor of Innovation Management at the Department of Strategy and Innovation at Copenhagen Business School (CBS)

Non-scientist stakeholder involvement and research impact: causal evidence from patient and public participation in medical research

Marion Poetz, co-authored with Paul-Emmanuel Anckaert, Egor Burda, Christoph Grimpe, Paul Hünermund and Rossella Salandra

Opening the scientific research process to non-scientist stakeholders, such as patients or the public at large, has been argued to enhance both scientific and societal outcomes. At the same time, concerns remain about whether such involvement may compromise scientific rigour or generate trade-offs between scientific and societal impact.

We examine these competing perspectives in the context of medical research, focusing on Patient and Public Involvement (PPI). Using a sample of 20,137 articles published between 2009 and 2019 in the ten leading general medicine journals, we investigate whether PPI is causally linked to scientific and societal impact.

We exploit the British Medical Journal’s 2014 policy mandating PPI reporting as an exogenous source of variation in PPI and estimate causal effects using a two-stage least squares approach.

Our results show that PPI increases scientific impact, measured as scholarly citations, and enhances scientific novelty. Its effects on societal impact are differential across impact channels: while PPI increases citations in clinical practice guidelines, it is associated with fewer citations in policy documents.

These findings suggest that involving non-scientist stakeholders in medical research can enhance scientific rigour, while its relationship with broader policy influence and practice-oriented impact is more nuanced.

Adopt a Guild in our Garden | Adopte uma Guilda no nosso Jardim
2026-04-18 10:00 - 17:00
Adopt a Guild – Become a Guardian of Regeneration

The Adopt a Guild Program invites students and community members to take responsibility for a small plant guild within our Community Garden.

A guild is a carefully designed micro-ecosystem where plants, soil, fungi and biodiversity interact in mutual support.

By adopting a guild, you will:

Learn ecological design in practice

Develop long-term stewardship skills

Monitor, maintain and care for your guild

Have your name associated with your adopted space

Contribute actively to the resilience of the garden

Adoption requires participation in the mandatory Permaculture Introduction Workshop on April 18th, 2026 and a small one time contribution fee to support materials and garden maintenance (10euros).

This adoption is a commitment to learning, responsibility, and regenerative action.

Registrations to be a Guild caretaker HEREApplications for the mandatory workshop HERE. Limited guilds available.

🇵🇹

Adoptar uma Guilda – Torna-te Guardião da Regeneração

O Programa Adopta uma Guilda convida estudantes e membros da comunidade a assumirem a responsabilidade por uma pequena guilda no nosso Jardim Comunitário.

Uma guilda é um micro-ecossistema desenhado intencionalmente, onde plantas, solo, fungos e biodiversidade interagem de forma cooperativa.

Ao adotar uma guilda vais:

Aprender design ecológico na prática

Desenvolver competências de cuidado e responsabilidade a longo prazo

Monitorizar e manter a tua guilda

Ter o teu nome associado ao espaço adotado

Contribuir diretamente para a resiliência do jardim

A adopção implica participação obrigatória no Workshop de Introdução à Permacultura (18 de Abril, 2026) e o pagamento de uma pequena taxa de contribuição única (10 euros) para materiais e manutenção.

Esta adopção é um compromisso com aprendizagem e regeneração 🙂

Inscrições para ser adoptar uma guilda AQUIInscrições para o workshop de Permacultura e Programa AQUI.Vagas limitadas.

Community Cohesion in Action
2026-04-22 18:00 - 20:00
A conversation with Suhayla Bazbaz, mexican political scientist dedicated to human rights and social justice

In this talk, “Community Cohesion in Action: retrospective, prospective and learnings” Suhayla Bazbaz Kuri will reflect on her experience as a community organizer and social activist. In particular, she will reflect on CCIS, the organization she founded and directs.

CCIS has been working to strengthen community cohesion and social innovation in Mexico for 17 years. In this public conversation, she will address some of the milestones of their work on issues such as human rights, violence and crime prevention, megaprojects, the energy transition, and urban transformation, and she will reflect on the scope and limits of this work in light of the present and the future.

Check the Eventbrite here and reserve your spot

When:22 April – 18h – 20h

Where:

Casa do Impacto, LisboaTravessa de São Pedro 8,1200-432

The Community Cohesion Approach as a Tool for Different Contexts and Scales
2026-04-23 10:30 - 12:00
In this talk, Suhayla Bazbaz Kuri will reflect on her experience as a community organizer and social activist

This workshop aims to provide theoretical and practical knowledge about the community cohesion approach. It will be designed to enable participants to reflect on the Nova School of Business and Economics as a hub for community cohesion, both within the school community and in Carcavelos, where it is located.

What to expect?

A reflective, participatory, and deliberative activity

Acquiring tools that can be used beyond the workshop and the school itself

A space where diversity is recognized and celebrated, and where problems and solutions are developed collaboratively

An activity that emphasizes potential rather than deficits

Where

Nova School of Business and Economics, CarcavelosRoom: B131

Facilitator

Suhayla Bazbaz Kuri is a Mexican political scientist dedicated to human rights, social justice and participatory democracy. She founded Community Cohesion and Social Innovation in 2009 to strengthen community ties and promote inclusive, rights-based, community-led development across Mexico.

She leads regional initiatives such as #LetThemKnowThatWeKnow, addressing power and information asymmetries affecting Indigenous and Afro-Mexican peoples, women, youth, people with disabilities and persons in mobility in decisions about their territories and megaprojects. She has facilitated the production of Archipelago, a podcast on diverse ways to defend rights and territories, as well as materials in Indigenous languages and accessible formats. She also launched Why they are here?, focused on corporatization and military integration in the Yucatán Peninsula and expanding to other regions.

She participates in Latin American collectives that advocate for authorities, businesses and financial institutions to meet their human rights obligations, and engages in demonstrations and dialogues on institutional violence against women. She delivered training to more than 8,500 stakeholders from public, private, civil, academic and media sectors.

Check the Eventbrite here and reserve your spot

Research Seminar - Anna Kim
2026-04-27 14:30 - 16:00 | TBD, Rua da Holanda, Campus de Carcavelos - Nova SBE, Lisboa, 2775-405, Portugal
William Dawson Scholar and Associate Professor in Management for Sustainability at the Desautels Faculty of Management, McGill University

Abstract: Toward Respectful Theorizing: Methodological Principles and Strategies to Generate Diverse Theories from Fieldwork in the Global South

Organization and management research increasingly aims to build theories based on fieldwork in the Global South. Nevertheless, existing methodological approaches risk producing accounts that do not reflect local realities, as well as causing epistemic injustice and potential harm to the communities studied. Specifically, researchers risk three forms of disrespect: uncritically generalizing Global North theories and experiences across the world (universalization), positioning certain perspectives and phenomena as of higher value than others (cultural superiority), and portraying Global South experiences as unusual and fascinating while divorcing them from broader social and historical contexts (exoticism).

To counter these tendencies, we propose three principles for more respectful theorizing: recognizing plurality across contexts while identifying the specificities embedded within universalized frameworks (particularizing); challenging cultural superiority by valuing local experiences and epistemologies (symmetrizing); and resisting exoticism by foregrounding heterogeneity within a setting and situating it in sociohistorical conditions (contextualizing). Building on these principles, we propose concrete methodological strategies to guide the theory-building process, from experiencing (beyond data collection) and sensemaking (beyond data analysis) to sharing (beyond writing), to mitigate the risk of epistemic injustice and foster diverse and pluralistic theories that are more grounded in local realities.

Spring 26' Prototyping Fund Showcase
2026-04-28 12:30 - 14:30
Join us for the end of our 6th Prototyping Fund cycle with the showcase of 17 incredible students’ projects!

The Prototyping Fund is a collaborative program offered by the DESIS Lab @NovaSBE with the support of Nova SBE Haddad Entrepreneurship Institute .

This program awards teams of students (with at least one member from Nova University) up to €600 or €1500 to be used to build hardware, software prototypes or prototype engagement activities, and connects them with the resources, tools, and mentors they need to bring their ideas to life.

This Spring we have 14 new teams, bringing fresh perspectives and ideas to the table, as well as 3 teams continuing their journey from the previous cycle. And this cycle we had many multischool projects!

Get your spot here
