Design for Sustainability
Design for Sustainability
ANNOUNCEMENTS
The 1st call of applications is open until 18 March 2026.
The Master's in Design for Sustainability is a joint iniciative of the Faculdade de Belas-Artes, the Faculdade de Ciências, the Instituto de Ciências Sociais, the Lisbon School of Economics and Management, and the Faculdade de Arquitetura of the Universidade de Lisboa.
Objectives
The Master's in Design for Sustainability has as general objectives:
- To provide postgraduate training in design in the context of sustainable development, understood in the transversality of the disciplinary framework of environmental, social, and economic sciences;
- To promote reflection and debate on specific sustainability issues that allow the design, development, and implementation of projects at the local, regional, and global levels within the framework of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals in 2015;
- To develop design projects in real context and in collaboration with public and private entities, in the scope of environmental, social, and economic sustainability.
The Master’s degree in Design for Sustainability is granted to students who have obtained 120 ECTS.
All classes are held in Portuguese. Therefore, it is recommended that students have be independent users of Portuguese (at least B1 level according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages).
1ST YEAR - 1ST SEMESTER
| Curricular Units | ECTS |
| Project I in Design for Sustainability | 6 ECTS |
| Design Thinking | 6 ECTS |
| Concepts of Economics and Management for Sustainability | 6 ECTS |
| The 2030 Agenda and the New Sustainable Development Goals | 6 ECTS |
| Introduction to Environmental Sciences | 6 ECTS |
1ST YEAR - 2ND SEMESTER
| Curricular Units | ECTS |
| Project II in Design for Sustainability | 6 ECTS |
| Research Methods | 6 ECTS |
| Sustainability, Space, and Society | 6 ECTS |
| Elective Unit I (FC-ULisboa) | 6 ECTS |
| Elective Unit II (ISEG-ULisboa) | 6 ECTS |
2ND YEAR - 1ST SEMESTER
| Curricular Units | ECTS |
| Seminar | 6 ECTS |
| Elective Unit III (FA-ULisboa or FBA-ULisboa) | 6 ECTS |
| Dissertation of Scientific Nature/Project Work/Report of curricular internship of professional nature | 18 ECTS |
2ND YEAR - 2ND SEMESTER
| Curricular Units | ECTS |
| Dissertation of Scientific Nature/Project Work/Report of curricular internship of professional nature | 30 ECTS |
A3ES Accreditation
Applications
2026/2027 Applications
1st Call:
Submission of applications: 18 February to 18 March 2026
2nd Call:
The 2nd call of applications will only take place when the number of vacancies is not completed by the enrolment of applicants admitted in the 1st call, and only for the vacancies that are have not yet been filled.
Submission of applications: 22 April to 6 May 2026
3rd Call:
The 3rd call of applications will only take place when the number of vacancies is not completed by the enrolment of applicants admitted in the 2nd call, and only for the vacancies that are have not yet been filled.
Submission of applications: 27 May to 10 June 2026
Applications through the FBAUL FenixEdu platform: https://fenix.belasartes.ulisboa.pt.
To create a registration, please access https://fenix.belasartes.ulisboa.pt/accountCreation.
In case you already have a registration, you can recover the access at https://fenix.belasartes.ulisboa.pt/passwordResetRequest.
In case you already have a student number at FBAUL, you should use your Campus account credentials. You may recover your access to this account at https://utilizador.ulisboa.pt.
The application fee is € 30.00 for the 1st call, and € 40.00 for the following calls.
Requirements
The following are admitted as applicants:
- Holders of a bachelor's degree or legal equivalent;
- Holders of a foreign academic degree conferred following a 1st cycle of studies organized according to the principles of the Bologna Process by a State adheding to this Process;
- Holders of a foreign academic degree recognized as meeting the objectives of a bachelor's degree by the Postgraduate Studies Committee of the Faculdade de Belas-Artes;
- Holders of an academic, scientific or professional curriculum recognized by the Postgraduate Studies Committee of the Faculdade de Belas-Artes as attesting the capacity to attend this cycle of studies.
Applications of students on finishing stage of a bachelor's degree in a Portuguese higher education institution are accepted.
In case of admission in this cycle of studies, the admission is subject to the presentation of the degree certificate, mandatorily until a fixed date.
Applicants must submit their application with the following documents:
- Bachelor's certificate or equivalent academic degree (the original must be presented at the Academic Services in case of admission). If the applicant is in the process of concluding a degree at a Portuguese higher education institution, they must, in place of the document proving their academic degree, submit a Declaration, under oath, that they are, in the academic year 2021/2022, in the finishing stage of the degree, with indication of the expected final grade;
- Transcript of records proving the grades obtained in the curricular units of the degree attended (for students in the final stages of graduation). If they have attended, or attend, a degree at the Faculdade de Belas-Artes of the Universidade de Lisboa, they are exempt from presenting these documents;
- Academic, scientific or professional curriculum with copies of the documents to which it refers;
- Letter of application/motivation to attend the programme;
- If the applicant is not Portuguese, they must submit a declaration, under oath, that they do not have Portuguese nationality nor are they covered by any of the conditions that, according to the International Student Statute, do not grant them the status of International Student (only for students who are covered by the Statute of International Student).
Admission
In the selection of applicants, an overall evaluation of their career will be carried out, subject to a classification on a numerical scale of 0 to 20 values, in which the following criteria will be considered:
- Classification of the academic degree they hold, and in the case of academic degrees obtained in foreign higher education establishments, the classification will be the result of the proportional conversion of the classification obtained to the Portuguese classification scale, when the foreign higher education establishment adopts a scale other than this;
- Assessment of the academic, scientific, technical and artistic curriculum;
- Relevant professional experience in the fields of the study cycle.
Applicants will be ranked according to the score obtained in the evaluation, resulting from the simple arithmetic average of the classifications attributed to each of the selection criteria, with applicants who obtain a score lower than 9.5 being considered excluded from the selection procedure.
A selection interview may be carried out for applicants, if the programme coordinator deems it necessary, in which case it will become part of the evaluation criteria indicated above, with applicants who do not attend the interview being excluded from the selection procedure.







