IWPP5 OTTAWA-2026

Call for Workshops

The call for workshop is now open

The International Workshop on Public Policy proposed to organize 20 to 25 workshops in parallel over 3 days (6 sessions). Each workshop is organized by at least two panel chairs and includes at least 12 paper presentations.

The process is organized in 2 distinct phases:

Call for Workshops: September 8 - October 17, 2025
Call for Papers: November 10, 2025 - January 30, 2026

During the first phase, at least two scholars will be invited to submit an open workshop proposal on a specific topic following the recommendations outlined below. The workshop proposal may address public policy, policy process, policy design, governance, or specific policy (environment, health, etc.) and must be open to a wide range of contributions from international scholars. At least two reviewers will evaluate the workshop proposal. All selected workshops will be announced on our website prior to the launch of the Call for Papers (second phase).

During the second phase, the chairs of each workshop will directly receive the paper proposals submitted through our website. They will have to evaluate the papers, taking into account that at least 15 papers are needed to hold the workshops (it is highly recommended to select 20 or more papers, considering that some participants may decide not to attend). A workshop with insufficient quality papers will be cancelled.

How to submit a workshop proposal:

Each co-chair needs to have an IPPA account. If you do not have one, you can create one here.
Log in to your IPPA account
When the call is open, click the "Submit a workshop" button at the top left-hand side of the page, complete the online form, and submit. The fields required are the following:
- Title of the workshop
- Choice of the topic from the dropdown menu
- The Email address of your co-Chair(s). Please note that to add the emails, the co-chair(s) also require having an IPPA account.
- A scientific presentation (1500 words) - see below
- A “Call for Papers” of around 300 words explaining the type of papers the chairs are expecting from the paper proposals.
- An abstract (maximum 300 words) - see below
- A brief biography of each chair (200 words/each) - see below
For this year's workshop, three formats are available:

Fully Onsite (The chairs and all participants will be onsite)
Fully Online (The chairs and all participants will participate remotely)
Hybrid- upon limited availability (The chairs must be onsite and some participants will join remotely, only few rooms will be equipped to accomodate this format)

The scientific presentation of the workshop

In not more than two to three pages, this presentation must describe the general topic of the workshop proposed. The following issues should be specified:

RESEARCH QUESTION: What is the research question of the workshop proposal to which participants are expected to contribute? This can be a theoretical, empirical, and/or methodological research question.
CONTEXT: In which context does this Research Question take place? The proposal should present the context of the Research Question proposed and justify why, given the context, the question is relevant.
STATE OF THE ART: What is the scientific relevance of the question? The presentation should provide a brief state-of-the-art and identify specific contributions expected from workshop participants.
HYPOTHESES: How will this workshop build on existing research? What hypotheses do the chairs seek to explore? What makes these hypotheses original, and how will they improve the available research on the key issue raised?
PAPERS: What type of contributions interest the panel chairs? The presentation must describe the kind of papers the chairs would like to receive: empirical, theoretical, methodological?
AGENDA: What methods will the workshop use? The document should explain the dynamics of the sessions, final outcomes, follow-up, and the possibility of publication.
POSSIBLE PAPERS: If the chairs have already identified possible participants, they should provide the titles of the paper proposals and the authors' references. At all events, this list of paper proposals must contain a maximum of 10 papers before they can be opened to other participants.

Topics, Brief biography and abstract

TOPIC

To contribute to the visibility of each Workshop during the call for papers, each workshop needs to be associated with one of the topics in the following list. If the workshop concerns two or more topics, the workshop chairs need to select only one of them, the one that contributes more to the visibility of its call for papers

POLICY PROCESS, POLICY MAKING
COMPARATIVE PUBLIC POLICY
WICKED-WILD PROBLEM & AGENDA SETTING
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, GOVERNANCE, NETWORKS
POLICY DESIGN, POLICY ANALYSIS, POLICY EVALUATION
POLICY & POLITICS
POLICY IMPLEMENTATION, STREET-LEVEL BUREAUCRATS
SECTORIAL POLICY (URBAN, HEALTH, ENVIRONMENT, etc.)
OTHER

Abstract (300 words)

The abstract will be published on our website and is the summary of the scientific presentation of the workshop. While the scientific presentation is addressed to the reviewers, the abstract is addressed to the future authors.

Biography

Each chair must present a brief outline (200 words) describing his or her current research interests, most recent publications, and academic status (ie. Professor, PhD student, etc).