Summer School - Nairobi Edition 2026

How to apply

Applications to attend the International Winter School on Public Policy - Nairobi edition are open until March 13, 2026. We invite you to consult the courses and workshop proposals separately to identify your favorite ones.

For the mornings, you can choose between two courses, which represent 10 hours (2 hours each day):

Communicating Policy Engaged Research by Joseph Obosi
Studying the Policy Process: Theories and Methods by Evangelia Petridou
Studying Policy Process with Constructivist, Pragmatic, and Qualitative Approaches by Philippe Zittoun

The afternoon workshops on Research Design represent 12 hours (3 hours by 4 days).

The selection of the participants will be based on their CVs and on their research paper abstracts (if they choose to present a paper during the workshops).

The results will be announced progressively. The registration will open in parallel to allow accepted candidates to register as soon as they receive their results. Attendance at the Summer School will be confirmed upon registration. The number of places in each course is limited, and registration is open within the limit of available places (around 10 participants per course). To ensure your participation, we strongly advise you to submit your application and register as early as possible.

How to apply?

To apply to the Winter School, please follow the steps below:

Log in or create an IPPA User Account
Click on the "I want to apply" button
Fill in the form and upload:
- An updated short CV (in pdf format)
- An abstract (one or two paragraphs) of the research project for candidates who wish to have their project discussed during the Winter School.
- If you want to apply for a grant, please include in the same pdf file a short motivation letter, clearly stating that you will not receive support from your institution and the reasons for applying for the grant. The letter must specify the type of grant you wish to apply for: either only registration fees OR registration fees + travel funding. Before applying for a grant, please carefully read the eligibility criteria provided here.
List the available courses by order of preference (where 1 is your preferred option). We will do our best to assign you to your first option.

Information - Submit your paper

Individuals who wish to have their project discussed during the Summer School must include an abstract in their application.

Length of the final submissions:

For research projects: at least 10 pages long
For articles: 7 000 to 10 000 words, in compliance with international standards.

The summary of the research project must underscore:

The research question: What issues does the project seek to highlight and why? These could be theoretical research questions or methodological questions.
In what context do these issues occur? The proposal should present the context in which these issues are found and justify why, taking into account this context, the issue is relevant.
What is the scientific relevance of the research question? The document should present a brief state-of-the-art and identify specific expected contributions and the approaches and concepts mobilized.
What will the research project contribute to existing studies? What kind of hypotheses does the project explore? Why are these original and how will they help highlight different aspects of the main research question?
Which methods will be used?