Call for Applications - Doctoral Consortium

The 30th Pacific-Asia Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (PAKDD) will take place in Hong Kong SAR, China, on June 9-12, 2026. The PAKDD2026 organizing committee invites students to apply for the doctoral consortium. The Doctoral Consortium (DC) provides an opportunity for doctoral students to discuss and explore their research interests and career objectives with a panel of established researchers in knowledge discovery and data mining. Doctoral students expect to interact with other researchers through participation in conference events and receive feedback on their current research and guidance on future research directions.

All PhD students are welcome to apply! PAKDD 2026 will be held exclusively in person. All accepted presentations must be delivered on-site.

Important Dates

Application Instructions

Submission Materials

1. Cover Sheet

A one-page information sheet that includes the following:

• Your full name
• Email address
• Affiliation: department, university, country
• Personal home page (URL)
• (Optional) Your gender
• Country of Citizenship
• Are you a member of an underrepresented minority ethnic group? If so, please specify.
• Expected graduation date
• Your thesis advisor's full name
• Your thesis advisor's contact details (title, department, affiliation, and email address)
• List of up to 5 keywords to help us select reviewers for your application

2. Thesis Summary

The summary (maximum three pages) should include the thesis title, the research questions being investigated, significance of this problem, key challenges, and important related work. Describe the proposed research plan and anticipated thesis contribution. Include a brief timeline and the planned work in your dissertation study.

Remember that the audience for your thesis summary includes people who are knowledgeable about data science, but are not necessarily experts in the specific topic of your thesis. Introduce the content at a high level so that the general data science researchers can understand, but also include sufficient low-level details so that the experts will appreciate your unique contribution.

The thesis summary is limited to three pages, in Springer format, including references.

Springer LNCS/LNAI manuscript submission guidelines and formatting template

All the manuscripts must be prepared and submitted in accordance with the above format. The use of generative AI models (e.g., large language models (LLMs)) must be explicitly disclosed and explained in the submission form. LLMs may only be employed for grammatical error correction. If generative AI is used at any stage of the paper-writing process, the authors should assume full responsibility for all content, including checking for plagiarism and correctness of the entire submission. Misuse of LLMs may lead to disqualification of application for the DC.

3. Curriculum Vita

Include a CV (at most one page) that describes your background, relevant experience (e.g., research, education, employment), and a list of your publications (including those under review and planned to be submitted) if you have any.

4. Advisor's Support Letter

The letter should describe the status of your thesis research and progress through your graduate program.

5. (Optional) Questions

A short (at most one-page) statement of what you expect to gain from presenting and participating in the DC and what specific questions you may have.

Please combine the documents into one PDF document with at most seven pages in total (1-page cover sheet, 3-page thesis summary, at most 1-page CV, 1-page support letter from advisor, and 1-page questions).

Note that DC thesis summaries will not be included in the conference proceedings but are available on the PAKDD2026 webpage. All participants selected to present their work at the Doctoral Consortium are expected to be present throughout the consortium.

All doctoral consortium applications should be submitted to https://cmt3.research.microsoft.com/PAKDDDC2026

Doctoral Consortium Co-Chairs of PAKDD2026