The Doctoral Consortium will take place in conjunction with the 4th International Conference on Geographical Information Systems Theory, Applications and Management, (GISTAM), to be held March 17 - 19 in Funchal, Madeira, Portugal. The GISTAM 2018 doctoral consortium will provide an opportunity for graduate students to explore their research interests in an interdisciplinary workshop, under the guidance of a panel of distinguished experts in the field.

The Doctoral Consortium will take place in conjunction with the 4th International Conference on Geographical Information Systems Theory, Applications and Management, (GISTAM), to be held March 17- 19 in Funchal, Madeira, Portugal. The GISTAM 2018 doctoral consortium will provide an opportunity for graduate students to explore their research interests in an interdisciplinary workshop, under the guidance of a panel of distinguished experts in the field.

The Doctoral Consortium on Geographical Information Systems Theory, Applications and Management is intended to bring together Ph.D. students within the geographic information systems and technologies field to discuss their research in an international forum. More precisely, the Doctoral Consortium will provide students with an opportunity to:
- Present their research work in a relaxed and supportive environment;
- Receive feedback and suggestions from peers and experienced faculty members;
- Gain an overview of the breadth and depth of Geographical Information Systems Theory, Applications and Management;
- Obtain insight into directions for geographic information systems and technologies research taken by other doctoral candidates;
- Discuss concerns about research, supervision, the job market, and other issues;
- Network with peers and future colleagues

Thus, the symposium will help shape ongoing and future research projects aimed at Geographical Information Systems Theory, Applications and Management, will promote scholarship and networking among new researchers in this emerging interdisciplinary area, and will expose these promising young researchers to the larger global community.

	Armanda Rodrigues NOVA School of Science and Technology, Universidade Nova de Lisboa Portugal e-mail
Brief Bio Armanda Rodrigues is Associate Professor of Computer Science, NOVA School of Science and Technology (Universidade NOVA de Lisboa) where she teaches and develops research in Multimodal Systems and Geographic Information Technology. She is an integrated member of Multimodal Systems Group of NOVA LINCS and is interested in Web-GIS, Emergency Management and Geo-collaboration. The main issues in Armanda’s research are inspired from very practical and real situations, characteristic of different computational environments where geospatial information and context is relevant. From this initial setting she is interested in providing models, methods, tools and infrastructures that may enable improvements in the use of Web/Mobile GIS systems, particularly focusing in changes in context and in collaborative environments. Armanda has been involved in several International and national research projects related with Geographic Information Systems, Simulation, Web-GIS and Geo-Collaborative Systems with case studies in the areas of Emergency Management, Digital Heritage and Agronomy. She is the author and co-author of several GI Science and Computer Science peer reviewed publications. She has also reviewed and served in the program committee of various GI national and international conferences as well as peered review journals.

ADVISORY BOARD

The Doctoral Consortium advisory board will comment each presentation and at the end of the consortium there will be a general discussion, including a reflection about current and future research topics in the area.

PROGRAM COMMITTEE

DOCTORAL CONSORTIUM REQUIREMENTS AND RULES

The Doctoral Consortium is based on the following requirements and rules:

• It is open only to Doctoral Students who have started their research;
• Each paper must have a single author, i.e. a PhD student. Other contributors, including supervisors, could be acknowledged in the “Acknowledgements” section of the paper.
• Each student with an accepted paper at the Doctoral Consortium must register and attend GISTAM: a special student fee applies;
• Each paper must be presented by the student
• Submissions will be judged mainly on relevance, originality, technical quality and clarity;
• Paper length: 8,000 to 50,000 characters (excluding white spaces);
• Papers must be written in MS-Word or Latex including the following information:
• research problem;
• outline of objectives;
• state of the art;
• methodology and
• expected outcome;
• stage of the research.

Registered Doctoral Consortium papers will not be included in the book of proceedings as archival publications or in the Digital Library and therefore will remain free of copyright.

HOW TO APPLY TO THE DOCTORAL CONSORTIUM

To apply for participation at the Doctoral Consortium, please submit your paper through the online submission platform PRIMORIS and follow the instructions and templates (MSWord and LaTex ) that can be found under Templates. After the paper submission has been successfully completed, authors will receive an automatic confirmation e-mail.

ACCEPTED STUDENTS SHOULD PREPARE:

1. An introduction of themselves and their Ph.D. project for the introductory session. 1 slide only. Duration: 60 sec max.
2. A 10 minute presentation of their Ph.D. project to be used for introducing discussion about their project and its main issues during the small group sessions.
3. Students are also invited to prepare a poster about their Ph.D. for the main conference poster session.

BEST PhD PROJECT AWARD

A "Best PhD Project Award" will be conferred to the student of a paper presented at the conference doctoral consortium, selected by the Doctoral Chair based on the combination of paper reviewing marks and the feedback of the Advisory Board. The award will be announced and bestowed at the conference closing session. The author of an awarded paper will be entitled to:

• A signed and stamped official award certificate;
• The announcement of their achievement on a special conference webpage;
• A one year free membership of INSTICC (http://www.insticc.org), warranting full access to the SCITEPRESS Digital Library. If already an INSTICC member, then this offer adds one year to her/his current membership.
• A voucher for a free or reduced registration* in one event sponsored by INSTICC, valid during a 12 months period, including all conference materials (without the printed proceedings). This voucher is only available if the presenter attends the closing session and receives the award.

* Speakers are entitled to a 50% discount over the basic registration fee; non-speakers are entitled to a free registration.

Important Deadlines