New cooperation opens for networking and PhD-education in Europe

NORWEL formalizes the cooperation with COCOSO, a network of six universities and 15 partners from the non-governmental and public sectors in Europe. This industrial doctoral network is dedicated to participation and co-construction as a core dimension of democracy and innovation in social welfare. COCOSO recruits, trains and supervises 15 PhD candidates in cooperation between academic and social welfare organizations from 10 European countries. Two-weeks training blocks are offered at each COCOSO partner university from 2025 to 2028

COCOSO and NORWEL both aim to support PhD-education in social work, including child and social welfare. From spring 2026 it will be possible for PhD-students in both organizations to earn ECTS in the compulsory PhD-education, either by participating in the PhD-courses organized by NORWEL (https://norwel.no/en/ph-d-courses/), or in one of the training blocks organized by COCOSO (https://cocoso.parisnanterre.fr/index.php/training/).

NORWEL and COCOSO will apply for each event for funding from the ERASMUS+ Blended Intensive Programs which, if successful, will reimburse participants with 70 € in daily allowance and travel costs, according to the distance calculator for the Erasmus+ program.

We are confident that this will be a great opportunity for networking and for acquiring research skills, together with other PhD-students across Europe!