The DPIP was born from the interdisciplinary dialogue among several CES investigators, linking the lines of investigation of two of its groups of investigation:  the Group on Humanities, Migrations and Peace Studies and The Group on Cities, Cultures and Architecture, which scholars from other Portuguese and foreign institutions from different disciplinary areas have joined.

Resulting from that dialogue, the following is to be highlighted:
a) The previous work by António Sousa Ribeiro and Margarida Calafate Ribeiro within the doctoral programme “Post-colonialism and Global Citizenship, as well as the works of António Sousa Ribeiro about the base concept of the Doctorate in Heritage of Portuguese Influence, as memory, in its various declinations, identity, testimony, heritage, post-colonialism, among others, and by Margarida Calafate Ribeiro the reflections about Portugal and its empire, synthesised in the book A History of Returns: empire, colonial and post-colonial war, and in other publications.
b) The long-term work by Paulo Varela Gomes and Walter Rossa about the history of Portuguese architecture and urbanism in the World, with special focus on the east, which had as first major “rehearsal” the assembly of the Master’s course in “Architecture, Territory and Memory” at the Department of Architecture of University of Coimbra, and more recent result, a considerable part of the coordination and writing of the work Heritage of Portuguese Origin in the World: architecture and urbanism, directed by José Mattoso and produced by Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, then poured onto the interactive website Heritage of Portuguese Influence (hpip.org)

A process was formally developed throughout the year 2009: first with the approval by several instances of the UC, followed by the process of accreditation by the Agency of Evaluation and Accreditation of Higher Education (A3ES) in March 2010 (Process no NCE/09/01387). The first edition of the course started in 2010 (2010-2014) and the second in 2012 (2012-2016).

For the second edition 2012, a protocol of cooperation has been signed with Universidade of the Algarve, through its Odebrecht/Capistrano de Abreu Chair, already with the beginning of the internationalization process in mind.

In 2013 the DPIP was the winner of the 2013 Competition of the Gulbenkian Qualification of the New Generations Programme / Innovative Projects in the Domain of Education of Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. The prize consisted in the financing of the construction of the international version of the DPIP, supporting the institutional encounters of the consortium, and the support to the mobility of students and teaching staff, who benefit from short-term grants for the development of their investigation projects in an international context.

The internationalization of the DPIP articulates around the axel Europe-Brazil (University of Coimbra and Universidade Federal Fluminense, Rio de Janeiro), and has as European partners the universities of the Algarve, Bologna and Paris Orest Nanterre La Defense and, in Africa, Universidade Eduardo Mondlane, in Mozambique. On the horizon lies the expectation of articulation with Universidade Agostinho Neto and Universidade de Cabo Verde, as well as the cooperation in the east, especially with India, Macau and East Timor.