Call for bids to host European Conference for Social Work Research (ECSWR)
2027 and 2028

The European Conference of Social Work Research (ECSWR) is the major annual event of the European Social Work Research Association (ESWRA). The conference has taken place since 2011 and is highly regarded amongst social work researchers across Europe, as an important annual event for sharing research findings and debating ideas as well as networking. It has grown in size and reputation, and the ESWRA Board is keen that ECSWR continues to develop and strengthen its quality, reach and value for social work research in Europe.

14th ECSWR 12^th – 14^th March 2025, Katholische Stiftungshochschule München

15^th ECSWR 22^nd – 24^th April 2026, Robert Gordon University Aberdeen

The ESWRA Board is now calling for bids to host the 16^th ECSWR 2027 and the 17^th ECSWR 2028.

Prospective hosts should prepare and submit an application of no more than 2000 words in length (excluding budget) and should include contact details for the person with lead responsibility on behalf of the prospective host to discuss with ESWRA the bid details.

Applications should be submitted to the ESWRA Executive Administrator, Claire Prater, (info@eswra.org) by October 7^th, 2024.

The key criteria against which any bid will be assessed will be:

Planning, administration, leadership,and liability:

• The prospective conference host must demonstrate that they have the capacity and experience for the planning and administration of organising such a large and high-profile international event.
• Joint bids between universities from a host country are welcome; however, a clear indication of the leading host university is expected in the bid. Bids will be assessed on the ability of the host university to provide academic leadership.
• The conference host needs to establish a Conference Organising Committee, to be jointly Chaired on behalf of the host and by ESWRA’S Vice-Chair. The Conference Organising Committee will provide the academic/research leadership for the conference and will be responsible for the conference planning and organisation.
• The conference host will make all necessary arrangements for hosting the conference, including hiring of rooms, conference advertising, abstract submission and review process, programme development, book of abstracts, social programme, room hire for the programme of Special Interest Groups, and catering. The host will also put in place management arrangements to cover contingencies.
• The ESWRA board will approve the conference budget as well as the conference theme and sub-themes, and keynote speakers.

Timing:

• The conference should be held between March-April (2027 and 2028) on dates which avoid local, national, and European festivities and holidays. If there is a preference for 2027 or 2028, please make it clear.

Accessibility:

• The host city should be reachable by no more than two relatively inexpensive flights from any European city.

Locality and Representation:

• The Board will particularly take into consideration the full likely cost of conference attendance for participants from low-income countries in Europe.
• ESWRA is committed to varying the geographical location of the conference.
• The host city should preferably be an appealing place to visit, providing added attraction to the conference itself.

Venue:

• The lecture halls and meeting rooms need to be of appropriate size and number. One main conference hall with capacity for 500+ people is essential, along with rooms to accommodate at least 15 parallel oral paper or symposium sessions for up to 50 people each.
• There also need to be 15 - 20 rooms available for the SIG Events sessions earlier in the day that the conference begins. Some of these could be the same rooms as for parallel sessions during the conference proper, but they could also be slightly smaller (for up to 40 people).

Outline budget:

• The host should provide a comprehensive anticipated budget, covering all expected costs.
• The budget should include a contribution of at least 20,000 Euros to ESWRA.
• Over and above this, any budget surplus generated by the conference should also be returned to ESWRA. In return ESWRA will bear all risks and upfront costs associated with the conference when these relate to the agreed budget.
• Budget headings for the bid are expected to include:
  • Venue hire, for main conference and the programme for Special Interest Groups
  • Estimates of catering costs,
  • Keynote speakers’ expenses,
  • Conference website and App development,
  • Local administration,
  • Contribution of at least 20,000 Euros to ESWRA, plus any surplus.

Endorsement from host university

• Prospective hosts should demonstrate that the bid has the full backing and support of the host university (and partner universities in the case of a collaborative bid).

ESWRA will use the above criteria to inform the selection of ECSWR 2027 and 2028 conference hosts. The final decision will rest with the ESWRA Board.

Full guidance for prospective ECSWR hosts can be found here Conference Guidelines (and in PDF format)

Applications to host the ECSWR 2027 & ECSWR 2028 should be submitted to the ESWRA Executive Administrator, Claire Prater (info@eswra.org) October 7^th, 2024.

The ESWRA Board expects to select and announce the hosts for ECSWR 2027 & ECSWR 2028 in early 2025.

Informal expressions of interest in advance of the application deadline are welcome. These should be made to the ESWRA Chair, Karen Winter (k.winter@qub.ac.uk) and/or Vice Chair, Florin Lazar (florin.lazar@sas.unibuc.ro) who will be pleased to discuss any questions from prospective hosts.

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