Students must acquire rigorous, state of the art knowledge in core areas of technological change, innovation, public policy, industry dynamics, information systems management and research methodologies. Students will complete the first year of coursework in Lisbon, Portugal, and the second year at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh. Students will complete core courses in the areas of technological change, economics, quantitative methods, entrepreneurship, information systems and organizational theory.

A sample sequence of core and basic elective courses is given below.

Additional elective courses may be required in the third year depending on their area of concentration. Each student's area of concentration will be worked out in conjunction with his or her faculty committee.

Areas of concentration will differ across students according to the colleges or departments in which they are admitted. For example, students interested in Economics of Technological Change admitted through the SDS-Carnegie Mellon and Católica Lisbon School of Business and Economics might include in their concentration courses in Game Theory, Industrial Organization or Competitive Behaviour. Students admitted in Heinz-Carnegie Mellon and IST-UTL or Católica Lisbon School of Business and Economics with interests in Management of Information Systems might include in their concentration courses in Big Data Analytics and Telecommunications policy.