Honouring outgoing ECPR Director Martin Bull

At the end of September 2019, Martin J. Bull (University of Salford) steps down after more than 25 years' service to the ECPR – 13 of them in a directorial role. 

During our recent General Conference in Wrocław, Poland, the current Chair of our Executive Committee, Kris Deschouwer (Vrije Universiteit Brussel) presented Martin with a very special award to mark his exceptional contribution to our organisation.

Honouring Martin's commitment, time, enthusiasm, professionalism, administrative and organisational skills, we present here a transcript of the speech given by Kris at our plenary event on 5 September in Wrocław's spectacular National Forum of Music:

‛Martin and ECPR have a long history together. In 1994 – that is 25 years ago – the editorial team of ECPR News moved to Salford, where together with Jim Newell, Martin took over what was then 'a two-page thing that landed occasionally in your pigeonhole' and was key in turning it into a proper Newsletter. That was not easy, because the rejection rate – to quote Martin – was 75%, that is 75% of the potential authors refusing to write something for the Newsletter! Yet it did work, and by 2001 ECPR could transform the Newsletter into a real in-house publication, a journal on the profession called European Political Science, EPS. That journal still exists and is now published in collaboration with Springer. 

In 2003 Martin was elected to the Executive Committee of the ECPR, where he became the chair of the Publications Subcommittee (then called the Publications Board) and played a role from there in securing the life of his EPS, but also of the then immensely successful European Journal of Political Research (it is actually where the two of us met, because I had been appointed in 2003 co-editor of the EJPR) and of the launching of the European Political Science Review (EPSR). 

Martin stayed only three years in the Executive Committee, because he moved on in 2006 to the position of Academic Director. At that time ECPR had indeed an administrative director and an academic director. In 2009 ECPR went through difficult times, for different reasons, but very much also because the organisation had actually become too big for the simple and informal rules and relations that defined its governance. 

A review of the structure was decided on, and the position of Director was created for a person who would take the lead of the administration. In 2011 Martin was appointed Director, and it is from then really that he has been able to display his skills in bringing people together, in giving an organisation a clear structure, in defining lines of communication and responsibility, in insisting on good training of all collaborators, in activating all their skills and abilities, in short: in making the administration of the ECPR a solid and performant body, a reliable and well-oiled back-office in the service of us, the academic community receiving from ECPR opportunities to publish, to exchange ideas at conferences and workshops and in standing groups and research networks, opportunities to be trained and to train our students in the use of research methods. 

Meanwhile he was the main go-between between staff and Executive Committee, and was an active participant in all its meetings, always defending the interests of the ECPR and even once in a while reminding the members of the Executive Committee that the defence of that general interest was their duty as trustees of the organisation. 

He was not absent – to put it mildly – in the transformation of ECPR from a charitable organisation to a so-called incorporated charity, which has given it a more solid legal position. And he was there to facilitate the move from renting office space at Essex University to the acquisition of Harbour House in Colchester, today’s headquarters and home of the staff. 

Martin’s mandate as Director was two times three years, and that mandate is coming to an end at the end of this month. It marks the conclusion of 25 years of devotion, of commitment, of engagement, of hard work, of a truly exceptional contribution to ECPR. He leaves behind him and into the hands of the newly appointed director Tanja Munro a healthy organisation, a healthy ECPR. And that is why we want to thank him for that, and to honour him by giving him the unique Martin Bull Prize for Exceptional Contribution to the ECPR.'