A linked doctoral conference will take place the day before on Wednesday 10 September 2025. The Doctoral Conference is free of charge and is open to all doctoral students studying at member institutions. Please check whether your university is a UKAPA member before you submit an abstract.
The doctoral conference will offer participants opportunities to discuss, critique and share ideas on researching public administration and related areas; it will also provide opportunities to discuss the PhD experience. We invite papers from doctoral students on any theme related to the broad disciplines of public administration, management, governance, and policy. The Doctoral Conference will provide doctoral researchers with an opportunity to present papers on conceptual critiques, early-stage research, progress in fieldwork or research findings and impact. Your paper may draw on your PhD project or other publication projects (e.g. a paper prepared for a journal submission).
To maximise the value of the Doctoral Conference, we ask that participants submit abstracts by 5 May 2025. In return, an academic panel will undertake to read the abstracts received and provide constructive feedback. At the Doctoral Conference, each paper presentation will receive comments from a peer doctoral researcher and senior academic in order to strengthen the paper. The conference will also provide doctoral participants with a session on publishing as a doctoral student.
The conference will run from 9:30 am to 17:30 pm on Wednesday 10 September 2025. Afterwards, at 17:30 pm, there will be a networking session with UKAPA Executive and Doctoral Conference Dinner which will also be free of charge.
PhD abstracts should be submitted to phd_abstracts@ukapa.org.uk
We hope that participants of the doctoral conference will also register for the UKAPA Annual Conference. Details for registration will be available shortly.
Doctoral Conference Abstract Submission Guidelines:
- Thesis title (for context)
- Type of work submitted (e.g. research proposal, chapter, paper, fieldwork)
- Provision of author details, affiliation and a single contact email address
- Abstract between 250 and 300 words in length
- Provision of key words
Doctoral Conference Prizes
UKAPA awards two prizes at the Doctoral Conference which includes free attendance at the following year’s Annual Conference.
1. Richard Chapman Prize
The Richard Chapman Prize (£400) is awarded for the best overall paper presented at the Doctoral Conference.
2. The Public Administration Prize
The Public Administration Prize is awarded for the most publishable paper presented at the Doctoral Conference. Following the Doctoral Conference, the author will receive editorial support so the paper can be published in Public Administration.
Both prizes will be awarded at the conference and presented at the conference dinner.
If you have any questions relating to the doctoral conference, please email the convenor, Dr Elke Loeffler e.loeffler@bham.ac.uk
