Submission Requirements

This two-day conference provides a friendly environment for postgraduate and early-career researchers (ECRs) to present their work, receive constructive feedback from established academics and peers, and network with each other. It offers an ideal introduction to the UACES community.

The conference features a keynote lecture, practical workshop and plenary roundtable, alongside a programme of research presentations from around 50 PhD students and Early Career Researchers (ECRs) in the field of European Studies, which includes disciplines such as (but not limited to) Political Science, Law, International Relations, History, Economics, Sociology, Geography and Anthropology.

The conference is primarily aimed at postgraduate and early-career researchers. There are also up to 5 places available for masters-level students. You do not need to be a member of UACES to attend, however, UACES members can access travel support funding to attend the conference, so you may wish to join to avail of that.

The event is free to attend, however there will be a nominal registration fee of £15, which will be refunded upon attendance at both days of the conference.

Submitting your proposal

Those wishing to attend must submit their paper proposal using the submission form by midnight on 23 March 2025. You will need to provide the title, abstract and theme of your paper at the time of submitting your proposal, but do not need to have a completed paper at this point. You can read the full call for papers by clicking here.

If your paper is accepted, we will require a copy of it at least 2 weeks prior to the conference so that it can be shared with your discussant and fellow panel members. Papers should be 6,000-8,000 words long, word-processed, 1.5 spaced and sized to A4. Working drafts of papers are acceptable as the conference aims to provide delegates with constructive feedback on their research.

Funding of up to 140 GBP will only be offered to UACES Members whose paper proposal was accepted following the Call for Papers. Funding is available for up to 30 participants at the conference. If there are more than 30 delegates wishing to avail of the funding, it will be offered to those who registered for the conference sooner.

Funding is only awarded to delegates who are UACES Members and currently studying for their PhD or who have submitted their PhD within the last three years (at the time of the conference). There are also up to 5 funded places available for masters-level students.

Funding will be allocated following paper-selection.

General

1. Delegates must register and accept their funded place by Monday 5 May 2025.
2. Funding is conditional upon attendance. Delegates must attend both days of the conference (29 & 30 May 2025);
3. Funding is conditional upon providing a research paper (6000-8000 words) to the participants in the delegate's research panel (e.g. fellow papergivers, chair and discussant) by 16 May 2025;
4. Funding is also conditional upon submitting to UACES one of the following items for publication on our website: your paper, a blog post based on your paper, a podcast, a video OR a policy brief (further details here). The deadline to submit this is 29 June 2025 (unless you have explicit written agreement from UACES to submit at a later date);
5. By sending us a paper, blog post, podcast or policy brief, delegates give us permission to display the submission on our website, before, during and after the conference until at least 31 December 2026.
6. Funding is conditional on receiving a completed expenses form which you must complete after the conference has finished, including all relevant receipts.

Eligible Expenses

UACES is offering up 140 GBP per eligible delegate towards the expenses of attending the conference. The funding can only be used to cover the following items:

1.  Up to 2 nights' accommodation in Athens. The accommodation must be booked for the dates surrounding the conference. We can cover the costs of staying in a hotel, bed and breakfast, hostel or AirBnB (or equivalent). We cannot provide funding to cover the costs of staying with friends or family. We cannot reimburse accommodation costs for people who work or study in Athens or surrounding areas (within one hour of travel). If attending with a friend or colleague, you may split the accommodation costs and you can both upload the same receipt in your expenses form outlining this.
2. Return travel to and from Athens. This must be economy class.

Payment of Funding

1. Reimbursements will only be made to those who attend both days of the full event.
2. Delegates may only submit ONE claim for up to 140 GBP of expenses.
3. Claims can be made by completing the expenses form including copies of original receipts/tickets. Receipts/tickets should clearly show the date of purchase and (if applicable) the date of travel.
4. Expenses will be reimbursed by bank transfer for UK-based and Eurozone-based delegates and by PayPal for all other delegates. Please set up a PayPal account in advance of the conference if you do not already have one.
5. Claims must be submitted between 30 May and 31 July 2025.

Those who have been offered the funding of up to £140 to attend the Graduate Forum Research Conference are required to submit an output and to complete an expenses claim form. Outputs must be received prior to the funding being paid out, and by 29 June. The expenses claim form must be received by 31 July. Funding recipients can chose from the below options to submit as their output:

Papers

You may submit the paper you presented at the conference as your output for receiving the funding. Papers should be 6,000-8,000 words long, word-processed, 1.5 spaced and sized to A4. If the paper you submitted prior to the conference was a working draft, then please let us know if you wish to make some edits prior to submitting to us to share on our website. If you are hoping to publish your paper anywhere then it is advisable not to chose this output option.

Blog Posts

Blog posts should be on the topic of the research you are presenting and will be edited and published for Crossroads Europe (the UACES Graduate Forum and JCER blog).

Please read examples of blog posts here and follow the style guide here.

We also have a collection of top tips on writing academic blogs, based on a recent UACES GF workshop, at these links:

• Twitter Q&A on writing blogs
• Blogging toolkit by Albrecht Sonntag
• "How to write for an academic blog" by former UACES GF Committee member, Anthony Salamone

Videos and Podcasts

Your video or podcast should summarise or explore your research in an engaging way; they could be animations, interviews or simply a short talk. Please see examples of past videos and podcasts on our Multimedia Pages. If you are interested in creating a video or podcast, please email Katie at UACES (kkilbourne@uaces.org) before you start recording, to discuss the suitability of your idea and for any assistance. UACES can assist with a limited number of videos and podcast recordings during the conference.