This year’s PhD Symposium presents a unique opportunity for emerging scholars, PhD students and early-career researchers (within three years of PhD completion) to engage with peers, academics and experts in a collective dialogue about public administration, management, law, governance, and policy.
The EGPA PhD Symposium is designed as an intellectual and human experience, an academic platform to improve quality, visibility, and impact of the next generation of international community of brilliant and motivated doctoral and early-career researchers across Europe and beyond. Rather than emphasizing formal and rigid presentation, the new approach prioritizes constructive feedback, long-term thinking and proactive debate aimed at strengthening theoretical and methodological approaches; and, central to support the scholarly growth to build an international network of young and engaged scholars in the field as a base for future collaborative projects.
The new format is aimed to reinforce EGPA’s capacity to attract, integrate, and retain PhD students and early-stage scholars by creating structured pathways into the Permanent Study Groups (PSGs), Ad Hoc Groups (AHGs), and Specialized Panels (SPs). This should enhance the continuity of participation and raise and sustain the future international academic community of EGPA, committed to increase inclusiveness and equal opportunity to support students and researchers from diversity in institutional, geographic, and disciplinary backgrounds, reducing participation barriers and fostering continuity across years.
The EGPA 2026 PhD Symposium introduces a substantially renewed and more ambitious format designed to offer doctoral students and early-career researchers an inspiring, collaborative space to engage with leading academics, explore emerging debates, and co-create opportunities for research collaboration and co-authored publications. Conceived as a learning community, the Symposium prioritizes dialogue, reflection, and experimentation, while supporting the development of academic trajectories and professional growth within the EGPA network.
At the core of this innovation are the PhD Research Labs, which replace traditional stand-up paper sessions with a structured, thematic, small group working format. The Labs are built on three developmental principles: Improve through focused insight, providing actionable feedback to strengthen research design and publication potential; Grow through collective intelligence, enabling peer comparison, testing of assumptions, and collaborative refinement of ideas; and Advance through guided development, where senior scholars help participants transform insights into concrete research pathways and early-career strategies.
The Symposium is organised in PhD Research Labs, each potentially bringing participants grouped by thematic affinity based on the open Call for Papers. Possible research areas include public governance, administrative reforms, administrative law, digital government and AI, collaborative governance, service delivery, public finance and performance, sustainability and the SDGs, comparative and multilevel governance, policy design, HRM and leadership in the public sector, ethics and integrity, and research methodology in public administration.
The final thematic configuration of each Research Lab will be defined once submissions close, depending on the number, quality, and distribution of proposals. Each Research Lab is chaired by one or two senior scholars—ideally aligned with relevant EGPA PSGs—ensuring coherence with the broader conference community.
The Labs unfold across three interconnected rounds that guide participants from concise research pitches to collective analysis. In Round 1 (Research in Progress), participants present the core elements of their projects (research question, theoretical framing, method, expected contribution) and receive initial feedback from Chairs. In Round 2 (Collective Learning), thematic roundtables enable participants to compare approaches, explore theoretical and methodological alternatives, and engage in peer-enhanced dialogue oriented toward problem-solving. In Round 3 (Final Wrap-Up), participants synthesize key insights and articulate short-term development goals, ensuring continuity of learning beyond the event and laying the foundation for collaboration.
Each Research Lab also serves as an entry point into EGPA’s Permanent Study Groups (PSGs), encouraging participants to continue their engagement through thematically aligned PSG panels, Ad Hoc Groups (AHGs), and Specialized Panels (SPs) during the main conference. Dedicated sessions for PhD participants—such as methods workshops and publication-oriented meetings with national and international journal editors.