Scientific Traineeship leading to PhD - "Sandwich PhD"

Regarding my experience, firstly, I highlight the success of the enlightening and thoughtful conversations I had the pleasure of having with my supervising professor at NOVA School of Law. They made all the difference to the development of the body of text of my thesis. Additionally, I had the opportunity to deepen the methodology of research and law analysis by attending classes on Procedural Law and Law Analysis Methodologies, as part of the PhD Law Programme at NOVA School of Law. The exchange of information with fellow doctoral students was also very useful for understanding Portuguese law. The opportunity to attend and present the topic of my thesis at an English SPEED was also fundamental for the evolution of my research. On the one hand, listening carefully to speakers and discussants of different nationalities on various topics and approaches favoured an analysis of my own thesis that was less centred on the perspective of my university of origin. On the other hand, presenting some of the points from my own thesis on 18 November 2020 made me listen and better reason with my own ideas, eliminate some excesses that sounded incoherent and focus on more essential points. Some comments were essential in opening my eyes to the most important point of my thesis which I was treating as secondary. The countless hours spent in the NOVA School of Law Library and in the doctoral students' room were also of major importance. Besides giving me the environment to write and research with more concentration, I was able to access more than 10 dissertations on my topic published by Portuguese universities. In fact, the mere presence at NOVA School of Law allowed me to find bibliographic material from Portugal with infinite ease, if compared to my research in Brazil. In short, my thesis underwent radical modification as to its methodological structure thanks to my presence at NOVA School of Law. If before, my research was on a broader theme, the sandwich PhD made me understand the greater importance of some questions within this wider theme, which became the central point of the thesis, through analysis of practice and regulation, the latter being practically inexistent in Brazil.