Membership of the ECPR

Our core purpose is to advance the field of political science, by bringing academics at all stages of their career together from across the world to share ideas, publish research and grow networks.

Our membership is comprised of over 300 of the world’s leading academic institutions concerned with teaching and researching political and social science. From this membership stems a network of tens of thousands of individuals, all of whom benefit from ECPR membership; from PhD student to Emeritus Professor.

We aim to provide vital professional support for all scholars at all stages of their careers, helping them progress through the profession and become leaders in their field. This is done in a number of ways:

Events

Our events programme is designed to provide a range of opportunities for both training and the sharing of new research, to support all stages of a scholar’s career.

The Futures Lab, launching in 2020 will be our first career-focussed event, providing vital training and professional development to PhD students to help them kick-start their careers.

The highly respected Methods School (Winter School and Summer School) continues to provide the highest quality of cutting-edge methods tuition across both a winter and summer event – the unique training tracks programme enables students to deepen or broaden their learning over multiple events.

The Joint Sessions of Workshops and General Conference complete the programme, providing opportunities for both intensive feedback and development of research and an opportunity to network with some 1,800 other political scientists, respectively, each year.

Individuals from member institutions pay a deeply discounted rate to attend all ECPR events; increasing to 50% for members and 85% for student members by 2025. You can read about our fee setting policy here. 

Funding and financial support

Each year we provide funding grants to students and young scholars from across our membership to help them attend our events. From 2020 this support has been increased to include fee waivers and grants to cover the full cost of attendance for successful applicants. Each member institution is entitled to receive up to ten grants per year (two per event).

From 2020 we will also be making additional funding available for special projects or indicatives, including to support scholars at risk. You can read more about our funding policy here.

Publishing

Highly cited journals and trailblazing books are a high profile and tangible output from our networks and events. We publish six leading journals, including one dedicated to the profession, and one fully Gold open access, plus a book series and our own publishing imprint, the ECPR Press.

Networks

Over 20,000 individuals from more than 300 institutions in some 44 countries worldwide make up the ECPR community. Scholars at member institutions can access these networks through events and publications but more formally also through joining (or creating) a Standing Group or Research Network – formalised research networks, fully supported both financially and practically.

The profession

As a scholarly society we are concerned about the academy and the conditions of those scholars who work within it. As such, we have published a number of studies and policies in this area, including the annual Gender Studies and Gender Equality Plan and the Code of Conduct.

Membership options and benefits

The ECPR has two membership types: Full Member and Associate Member. Full Membership is now open to any institution wishing to access the full suite of benefits; Associate Membership is open only to institutions outside of the UK and Europe. As of the membership year 2020/21 a discounted rate is available for a number of countries determined to be lower and upper- middle income by the World Bank using the Atlas Method. Please see the Constitution and current Membership Fees for more information.

Benefits at a glance

Institutional membership of the ECPR entitles staff and students within that institution to the following benefits:

How to join

If your institution isn’t a member, or if membership has lapsed, we would love to talk to you about how the ECPR can support you and your staff and students. We can even provide illustrations and examples of how membership could actually save your institution money over the course of a year, through event discounts and participant funding and reduced publishing APCs. Simply get in touch.