Doctoral Day Faculty of Business and Economics
Tuesday 21 October 2025
- Doctoral Day
- Deadlines
- Preliminary pogramme
- Workshops
- Best Paper Award
- Venue
- Photos (2024 edition)
Doctoral Day 2025

The Doctoral Day event is yearly organized by the Faculty of Business and Economics in co-operation with the Executive PhD programme of the Antwerp Management School. We invite PhD-students, as well as their research supervisors and interested PhD researchers.
This scientific gathering offers PhD students a platform to present their doctoral work and receive comments from a discussant. The Doctoral Day is also meant to offer opportunities to 'meet and greet' and exchange ideas with fellow students, faculty, and professors. Finally, the annual Doctoral Day wants to contribute to the visibility of the growing research environment of the Faculty of Business and Economics.
Amongst the submitted papers, the Best Paper Award Committee selects three papers that will be presented during the Doctoral Day, after which the Committee decides who receives the Best Paper Award.
The 15th edition of the FBE Doctoral Day will take place at 21 October 2025 at the Cloister of the Grauwzusters.
Deadlines
1 September 2025 | Registration for active participation (discussant and/or presenter) - open for PhD students enrolled at the Faculty of Business and Economics. Presenters need to submit their abstract in the registration form. |
10 September 2025 | Presenters submit their paper. |
3 October 2025 | Registration for participation only & workshop. |
Preliminary programme 2025 edition
9:15-9:40 | Registration |
9:40-10:00 | Word of welcome |
10:00-12:00 | Parallel sessions |
12:00-13:00 | Lunch |
13:00-14:30 | Parallel sessions |
14:30-15:15 | Presentations Short list Best Paper Award |
15:15-15:45 | Coffee break |
15:45-16:45 | Workshops - Participants choose 1 workshop |
16:45-17:00 | Best Paper Award Ceremony |
17:00-18:00 | Reception |
Workshops
Participants can follow one out of three parallel workshops:
Publishing and reviewing - Patrick De Pelsmacker

The purpose of the workshop is to provide guidelines, tips and tricks, do’s and don’t’s when preparing a paper for submission to an academic journal and when performing a peer review of a paper that was submitted for publication.
Attention will be devoted to demonstrating relevance and fleshing out the contribution of an article, developing a conceptual framework, research questions and hypotheses, developing and describing a research method and the results of empirical work, and writing a compelling discussion section. The purpose of peer reviewing will be explained, and the duties and tasks of an academic peer reviewer will be discussed. All these principles and guidelines will be illustrated by means of real-life examples.
Participants are expected to actively contribute to the discussion and are invited to share their own publishing and reviewing issues with the other participants.
Prof. Dr. Patrick De Pelsmacker is professor emeritus connected to the marketing department of the Faculty of Business and Economics.
Staying Sane: Stress and Work-Life Balance as a PhD Researcher - Brecht Polspoel

Doing a PhD can be exciting, but also mentally exhausting. Long periods of uncertainty, isolation, performance pressure and blurry work-life boundaries can wear down even the most passionate researcher. In this session we explore how you can take care of your mental health while navigating the ups and downs of academia. Through examples and practical tools, we’ll discuss how to recognize and manage stress, build healthier boundaries, and maintain a more balanced relationship with your work. This session is not about “doing more” or “fixing yourself”, but about finding ways to stay grounded and connected, even in the messiness of academic life.
Dr. Brecht Polspoel is student counselor at UAntwerp. Students can contact him for both study guidance, study choice guidance, and psychological guidance (e.g., stress, anxiety, self-confidence). Brecht Polspoel has a degree in clinical orthopedagogue (KULeuven, 2015) and is doctor of pedagogical sciences (KULeuven, 2019).
Best Paper Award
At the end of the research day, one of the presented papers is awarded with the Best Paper Award. The winner receives a budget that can be spend for conferences or courses.
A first selection is made by the session chairs, who can select one paper out of his/her session to be selected for the longlist. The Best Paper Award Committee will then decide on a shortlist of three papers which are presented during the Doctoral Day. Afterwards, the winner is announced in a plenary session.
For the 2025 edition, the Best Paper Award committee consists of Prof. Dr. Barbara Briers (chair), Prof. Dr. Sven Damen, Prof. Dr. Christof Defryn, Prof. Dr. Ans De Vos, Prof. Dr. Sebastiaan Maes and Prof. Dr. Christa Sys.