Many enrolled doctoral students experience a lack of community and uncertainty due to temporary and unpredictable positions. For example, doctoral students in Sweden report feeling lonely and lacking a sense of togetherness regarding their doctoral research program and research community (Akademiet for yngre forskere, 2021; Fackförbundet ST and Sveriges Förenade Studentkårer, 2021). A recent report states that only 15 percent of doctoral students in Norway complete their education by the end of the original contract period (Fodstad-Larsen, 2022), and they are described to battle various psychosocial challenges related to their work, work environment, and work-life. 

The understanding of research community is, however, by no means a straightforward issue. How research communities develop is unclear, and the role and engagement of doctoral students within the community is equally challenging. Opportunities for social contact, academic discussions with fellow students, integra tion into the departmental community, and the possibility for doctoral students to become involved in the broader research culture are pointed out as triggers for a sense of togetherness (Brew et al., 2017). Nevertheless, these items reflect only a limited notion of a research community. For the triggers to contribute to a sense of togetherness and to a research community where the doctoral students experience learning as an integral part of the research education, it requires an operationalization of the triggers into tools and strategies.Finding tools for building a community and sense of togetherness may be a way to hinder the sense of distress among doctoral students. Furthermore, finding structures to create long-lasting communities may benefit continuous networking among doctoral students contributing to lifelong learning. In this paper, we will explore how "world-café" seminars can be used as a tool and stimulation for community building in research education.

The case setting was one seminar session within a series of cross-border doctoral seminars designed to strengthen research collaboration between the participating higher education institutions and promote the exchange of experience and skills between doctoral students and research environments. The seminar series hosted 22 doctoral students from Norway and Sweden, and the participants had different academic backgrounds, belong to different research educations at different academic institutions, and are at different places in the process of the ir research education. The initiators of the seminars were the chairs of the doctoral forums at two academic institutions, one in Sweden and one in Norway. The chairs were also the ones guiding the participants through the café seminar process.

A world café is a seminar form which essence is an intervention for organizational change and development or community building amongst individuals, e.g., doctoral students. Its defining characteristic is how communication is based on conversations structured as dialogue. Here, the dialogue is proposed to create a meaning flow between participants, resulting in shared meaning and opportunities for life-long learning as well as learning as an integral part of work or education. Prewitt (2011) describes the caf e's unique contribution as the interventional form; of structured conversation in short cycles, which deliberately mixes participants between cycles to maximize knowledge exchange.

To initiate the café seminar, the essence of world café was introduced by the two chairs. The cafés were hosted by the same chairs, in the role as so-called café facilitators guiding the participants throughout the four cycles, each round lasting 20-30 minutes. In the first three cycles, one participant volunteered to be the tab le host with the position to anchor that table's conversation throughout multiple changes of visitors and potential changes of table hosts. The table host was responsible for holding the collective and evolving the topic at this table, and the other participants carried their collective and evolving stories with them. This café had four tables and three topics: i) Knowledge and Life-Long Learning ii) Transformation and Sustainable Development, iii) Social Sustainability. The "transformation and sustainable development" were discussed at two tables and the others at one each. In the first cycle, participants brainstormed in four smaller groups around the three topics the café facilitators presented. The second cycle started when a new composition of doctoral students gathered at each of the four café tablets.

The table host presented a summary from the previous discussion before a new brainstorming and discussion started. In the third cycle, participants changed tables again. This time they were encouraged to formalize and concretize the brainstorming notes into a structure containing the research topic, motivation, research question, context, theory and methodology, and contribution. In the fourth and final cycle, the doctoral students formed self -selected writing groups around the three overall topics. At this stage, the café seminar had been going on for 2,5 hours, and the participants were no longer bound to stay in the venue to finish. Hence, the seminar ended with the forming of writing groups. All the writing groups were encouraged to work further with the aim of designing a common abstract. Eight doctoral students chose to continue with the topic of knowledge and life -long learning, four with the topic of transformation and sustainable development, and five chose the topic of social sustainability.Our findings, based on participatory observation, oral feedback from the participants, and evaluation filled in after the seminars, show that a dialogical seminar is well suited for deriving cross-disciplinary research experiences amongst doctoral students. Sharing and exchanging experiences promote work-integrated learning in a research community initiated and led by fellow doctoral students. In the feedback the participants in the café seminar reported a sense of togetherness by being included in a safe community with fellow colleagues. The formal structure of the café seminar provided mutual ground and formalized dialogues amongst doctoral students who would otherwise not meet, and this provided a tool to formulate initiatives for long-lasting communities across disciplines and higher institutions.