The 4th ECPR Winter School in Methods and Techniques took place at the Bamberg Graduate School of Social Sciences (BAGSS) February 2015.

Thirty eight courses ran at the 2015 Winter School with the most popular being 'Introduction to R' which was so popular, two classes ran simultaneously taught by Florian Weiler and Thorsten Schnapp, who are both based at BAGSS.

The ECPR’s Methods School (and both events within it - the Winter School and Summer School) have become synonymous with high quality, cutting edge courses in the full span of qualitative and quantitative topics. Delivered by a diverse range of experienced Instructors and supported by dedicated Teaching Assistants, the academic side of the School is designed to provide young scholars with the methodological skill set they need at the start of the career, while an exciting plenary programme provides an opportunity for all important networking.

The Methods School organisers both at the ECPR and the local host institution go to great lengths to provide a fun, stimulating and inclusive set of events, aimed to support young scholars at the start of their careers (the Brown Bag Lectures) and create vital networks for future support and collaboration (social events).

This year’s Brown Bag Lectures provided advice on the important themes of 'Big Data, the Next Holy Grail… or Too Large to Chew?' and 'Speaking of Quality: Shared Standards for ‘Good’ Qualitative Research?' Both sessions were well-attended.

Outside of the classroom participants could get to know one another at the many organised social events, designed to satisfy heritage and cultural cravings, to celebrating completing the Winter School by experiencing the Bamberg nightlife.