Call for Participation

Are you interested in sharing excellent work that others can learn from? We’re excited to hear about it!

To help you prepare a successful proposal, this section includes detailed information about what EPIC case studies are, what our reviewers are looking for in their evaluations, and what to include in your proposal. Please read it carefully, and if you have questions, don’t hesitate to connect with Annie Lambla and Martin Ortlieb, Case Studies Co-Chairs: CaseStudies@EPICpeople.org

What Is a Case Study?

Case Studies demonstrate ethnographic and sociocultural approaches to concrete challenges that create value for organizations and communities. They are important advocacy and learning resources, offering both rigor and storytelling through which we can cultivate deep expertise and adaptive practice. Case Studies should provide:

• Persuasive evidence connecting ethnography to impact
• Frameworks and techniques that can be applied and adapted widely
• In-depth, in-context accounts of expert craft that advance quality and innovation in our practice

Case Studies are distinctive from other formats in our program. They are:

• in-depth examinations of a completed project, or a number of closely interrelated projects within an initiative;
• based on firsthand experience (at least in significant part);
• informed by related work, demonstrating high quality and clear rationale;
• concretely useful to practitioners in a range of sectors, industries, roles, etc.; and
• engaged with the conference theme.

Please note that Case Studies are NOT:

• based on incomplete or planned work;
• a basic report of methods and findings;
• assessments of theoretical or research paradigms that do not include on-the-ground applications; or
• work that primarily promotes a business, organization, or proprietary product or method.

Case Study authors have an important role in the EPIC conference and community. Authors will create two things:

1. A presentation at EPIC2025 designed to spark collaborative learning, creative ideas, and productive debate among attendees.
2. A written article published in the peer reviewed, open access journal EPIC Proceedings that makes ethnographic practice and impact widely available to research, business, and stakeholder communities (approx. 3–5,000 words).

Here are examples of published EPIC Case Studies:

• AI Chatbots in Customer Support, David Rheams (2024)
• How a Government Organization Evolved to Embrace Ethnographic Methods for Service (and Team) Resilience: The Case of the Canadian Digital Service, Mithula Naik & Colin MacArthur (2022)

What Makes a High-Quality Case Study? What Are We Looking For?

Case Studies provide practical takeaways through rigor, storytelling, and synthesis.

They must go beyond simplistic narratives, project reporting, or steps taken. Practical lessons and frameworks are most valuable when they are developed through the careful description and analysis of craft, and assessment of how they can be used and adapted. This kind of detailed, collective engagement with our practices is invaluable for illuminating the ways we interpret organizational and social contexts, make choices, respond to setbacks, adapt to emerging needs, build relationships with partners and participants, and continually evolve the value we deliver.

We encourage Case Studies that contribute to collaborative, adaptive practice.

Ethnography is inherently participatory—it is practiced in combination with other approaches, in collaboration with interdisciplinary colleagues and diverse communities, and through adaptation to new environments. In the spirit of the EPIC2025 theme Intelligences, we especially invite Case Studies that engage multiple intelligences, going beyond standard human-centered approaches to research to achieve meaningful results.

We also encourage Case Studies that introduce novel spaces and roles for ethnographic practice.

We invite work across foundational, R&D, market, consumer, product/service, organizational, communications, and other research functions, as well as projects by strategists, creatives, managers/executives, and others who use ethnographic practices and/or insights in their work.

If you’re interested in offering a synthetic analysis or engaging with a range of work that is not a deep-dive into an individual case, consider whether a Paper proposal is more appropriate. If you have questions, please contact us! CaseStudies@epicpeople.org

Case Study Categories

This year, proposals should be submitted to either the Research or the Impact category. Although many projects involve both, trying to address everything in one presentation or written case study can sacrifice depth. Our aim is to produce rich cases that deeply explore on-the-ground work, reflect on choices and adaptations, consider how paradigms and methods can apply to other contexts, provide detailed insights into the journey to impact, and highlight the expertise of the EPIC community.

When selecting your category, focus on your case’s strongest contribution. Don’t worry—excellent proposals won’t be rejected for being in the “wrong” category.

1. Research Case Studies

Research cases highlight excellence and innovation in primary or secondary research. They should convey the context of the full research journey, but must focus on the key area of contribution through a close description and analysis of craft.

Ethnographic and sociocultural approaches can be central to the project, part of an interdisciplinary effort, or used to shape the project’s framing, scope, design, analysis, or other component.

Have you:

• Made a significant innovation in a research paradigm, methodology, or technique?
• Developed novel ways to study or integrate multiple, collective, distributed, sociotechnical, embodied, ecological, machine, material, and other forms of intelligence in your research practice?
• Successfully adapted specific approaches in industries, organizations, divisions, or teams where they had been absent, or even resisted?
• Implemented a new framework for research intelligence, operations, or quality?
• Introduced new ways to study how intelligence emerges in organizations?

A Research Case Study is for you!

2. Impact Case Studies

Impact cases draw a line from ethnography to impact. Impact may mean driving successful decision-making, growth, productivity, organizational transformation, social change, or other key outcomes that have clear organizational value.

The impact may be driven by insights derived from a traditional research phase, or by the use of ethnographic and sociocultural approaches in other areas of work, such as risk management, operations, sales, compliance, security, legal, policy making, HR, communications, community engagement, governance, or other divisions.

Have you:

• Concretely improved decision-making, work processes, or organizational capabilities by leveraging new kinds of intelligences?
• Developed processes or mediums that demonstrably help organizations learn?
  Driven organizational change, business strategies, new market orientations, and other strategic shifts that created valuable outcomes?
• Created a framework or metric that draws the line from insights to impact?
• Enhanced, expanded, or shifted paradigms and practices of ‘business intelligences’ in ways that improved key outcomes?
• Implemented novel approaches to stakeholder engagement, participation, or relationships that created specific kinds of value?
• Brought new intelligences to effective leadership and management practices?

An Impact Case Study is for you!

Peer Review and Selection

Case study proposals are anonymized and reviewed by two peer reviewers and one Case Studies Committee member. Reviewers assess the proposal according to the criteria in the Evaluation and Selection section here, making specific reference to the fit for the case study track discussed in detail above. We generally accept 20–30% of the proposals we receive.

Preparing Your Case Study Proposal

In our submission system (link below), you will be asked to provide the following information:

• Submission Title
• Category: Select either Research Case Study or Impact Case Study.
• Statement of Contribution: Maximum 150 words. A concise statement about the principal contributions of your case study that communicates:
  • What others can learn and apply/adapt to other organizations and contexts
  • How the case will deepen, advance beyond, and/or revise current practices
• Abstract: 400–600 words (not including references, which you will submit in the next field). The abstract must be more than a high-level description of what you did. Please ensure the following topics are covered:
  • The organizational or industry challenge the work addresses
  • The relevance of ethnographic or sociocultural paradigms, methodologies, or expertise to your processes, outcomes, and/or analysis of the case
  • How the proposal intersects with the conference theme Intelligences
  • Why your case study fits the category you have chosen and how, in its written and presented forms, it will: Demonstrate excellence and innovation in primary or secondary research (Research Case Studies); OR draw a line from ethnographic work to impact (Impact Case Studies)
• References: Literature, research, methodologies, and data sources on which your case study will draw, including those cited in the abstract. A specific reference style is not required at this stage (do ensure the references are complete).
• AI Disclosure: You will be asked to disclose some uses of generative AI; see Submission Rules for details.
• Ethics Disclosure: For research you conducted that is represented in your proposal and presentation/publication, you will be asked to disclose the ethics review/protocol used.

Technical notes:

• To ensure anonymous peer review, do not name or reference the identity or affiliations of any co-authors within the proposal. You will enter this information at the beginning of the submission process, prior to submitting your proposal.
• Additional guidelines for developing, formatting, and delivering final case studies and conference presentations will be provided to authors whose proposals are accepted.

SUBMIT HERE! ▸
note: the submission platform is not linked to your EPICpeople.org account

Submission deadline: February 21.

If you have questions, don’t hesitate to contact us: CaseStudies@EPICpeople.org

Are you interested in sharing excellent work that others can learn from? We’re excited to hear about it!

To help you prepare a successful proposal, we are providing detailed information about what EPIC Papers are and what our reviewers are looking for when they evaluate proposals. Please read it carefully, and if you have questions, don’t hesitate to connect with Yuliya Grinberg and Tom Hoy, Papers Co-chairs: Papers@EPICpeople.org

What Are Papers?

Papers deepen the quality and impact of our work by applying a specific area of expertise to a concrete challenge or problem space. They extend, evolve, or revise the concepts, methodologies, and frameworks we use to drive organizational learning and decision making.

Papers include:

• Framing of a current or emerging challenge
• A synthesis of relevant expertise and debates
• A compelling argument about the value or limitations of this existing work
• A new or adapted framework, methodology, or technique we can use to address concrete challenges across a range of contexts

Paper authors have an important role in the EPIC conference and community. Authors will create two things:

• A presentation at EPIC2025 that is a catalyst for learning and debate.
• A written article published in the peer reviewed, open access journal EPIC Proceedings that makes ethnographic practice and impact widely available to research, business, and stakeholder communities (approx. 5–7,000 words).

Authors should consider how they can activate discussion, challenge assumptions, and engage the EPIC community to extend and build on their ideas at the conference and through their writing.

Here are examples of published EPIC Papers:

• Democratization and Research, Nadine Levin
• Decolonizing LLMs: An Ethnographic Framework for AI in African Contexts, Lindsey Dewitt Prat, Olivia Nercy Lucas, Christopher Golias & Mia Lewis

What Makes a High-Quality Paper? What Are We Looking For?

A Paper must make a novel contribution. Novelty can take different forms; for example, a Paper might:

• open a new opportunity, organizational role, problem space, or type of value for our work;
• evolve current theory and practice to more effectively address current or emerging social, economic, environmental, industry, technological, or other shifts;
• address a limitation or shortcoming in our work by integrating expertise and practices from other fields or domains; or
• initiate collaborative or interdisciplinary approaches that create new kinds of value.

Papers generally incorporate an analysis of the author’s original research and/or project work, but are not focused on presenting a single case study (please see Case Study proposals).

EPIC2025 Theme: Intelligences

Please read the theme here. The committee is particularly interested in areas such as:

• The application of new or existing theories, methodologies, and techniques to engage multiple, collective, and/or distributed intelligences
• The value and limitations of current models of human and machine intelligence that are driving AI development and human-AI interaction
• How different forms of intelligence shape and interact in organizational learning and decision making processes
• Engaging intelligences of physical, material, and ecological systems to inspire innovation that addresses the climate crisis, health, and wellbeing
• How intelligences emerge through social relationships, cultural practices, and embodied experience
• The implications of synthetic data and people as tools for understanding and interacting with users and markets, in product and model development, and other applications
• What happens when different forms of intelligence and evidence-making come into productive tension or conflict with each other

Authors who are new to the EPIC community and less familiar with the EPIC library should, if their proposal is accepted, be committed to engaging with specific EPIC articles suggested by reviewers and curators during the writing process. (You don’t have to agree with them! The point is to engage with other work on your topic in our community.)

Peer Review & Selection

Paper proposals are anonymized and reviewed by two anonymous peer reviewers and one Papers Committee member. Reviewers assess the proposal according to criteria listed in the Evaluation and Selection section, making specific reference to the fit for the Papers track discussed in detail above. We generally accept 20–30% of the proposals we receive.

Preparing Your Paper Proposal

You will be asked to submit:

• Submission Title
• Statement of Contribution: Maximum 200 words. Provide a concise description of:
  • The gap, challenge, or opportunity your paper will address
  • What the EPIC community will learn that advances current practice
  • What your paper will offer that can be applied and adapted for a range of projects/contexts
• Abstract: Maximum 800 words (not including references). The abstract should:
  • Describe the problem space or shared challenge your paper addresses
  • Identify your main argument and describe in detail how you will build it
  • Discuss the sources you will draw on and synthesize—bodies of work, types of evidence, theories, methodologies, data sources, etc. Include their significance to your paper; how you use them; and your depth of experience with them.
  • Describe the examples of concrete projects/applications (your own or others’) that you will discuss in your paper
• AI Disclosure: You will be asked to disclose some uses of generative AI, see Submission Rules for details.
• Ethics Disclosure: For research you conducted that is represented in your proposal and presentation/publication, you will be asked to disclose the ethics review/protocol used.

Technical notes:

• To ensure anonymous peer review, do not name or reference the identity or affiliations of any co-authors within the proposal. You will enter this information at the beginning of the submission process, prior to submitting your proposal.
• You must include complete bibliographic references for work mentioned in your proposals, but at this point we do not require a specific reference format. Guidelines for developing, formatting, and delivering final papers and conference presentations will be provided to authors whose proposals are accepted.

SUBMIT HERE! ▸
note: the submission platform is not linked to your EPICpeople.org account

Submission deadline: February 21.

If you have questions, don’t hesitate to contact us: Papers@EPICpeople.org

What in the world is a PechaKucha (and how do you even pronounce it)? We’ll tell you, and provide important information about what our reviewers look for in PechaKucha proposals so you can create a great one. Please read it carefully and if you have questions, don’t hesitate to connect with Guillaume Montagu and Vyjayanthi Vadrevu, PechaKucha Co-chairs: PechaKucha@EPICpeople.org

PechaKucha (ぺちゃくちゃ, pronounced: “peh-cha-ku-cha”) presentations are performances that synchronize narration or storytelling with 20 still images that show for 20 seconds each. Total presentation time is 6 minutes, 40 seconds. They offer a visual and reflective format for sharing unique insights, perspectives, juxtapositions, and provocations about ethnographic work. These proposals are anonymized and reviewed by the committee.

EPIC PechaKucha are not mini case studies or project debriefs (stuffed with findings and results). Rather, they are unique opportunities to use your ethnographic lens in lyrical, exploratory, pointed, or provocative ways, creating space for reflection and exploration that can be hard to find during daily work. You might use strategies such as juxtaposition or frameshifting; expanding outward from a single research moment, insight, or study participant; or taking on a compelling concept or theme across different projects, work contexts, or even whole careers.

Here are some examples of past EPIC PechaKucha:

• Toilet Talk: The Subtle Art of Awkward Research, Annie Lambla & Camille Ronceray
• If Today’s Problems Are So Urgent, Why Are We So Stuck?, Meg Kinney

Use of Images in EPC PechaKucha:

• Use of a genAI tool or stock photos to create your images is not prohibited. However, we want to emphasize that PechaKucha images are not just decorative—we will evaluate whether and how well the images are carefully selected or created for deliberate visual impact that supports your unique story.
• We take the rights of creators seriously, so please be sure you can obtain written permission for any images you want to use, including the rights to include them in your live and live-streamed presentation, and the published video recording in the EPIC Library.
• PechaKucha is a trademarked format and only still images, with no animations, are permitted.

Preparing Your PechaKucha Proposal

You will be asked to submit:

• Submission Title
• Abstract and Statement of Contribution: Maximum 300 words. Your statement should make these things clear to reviewers:
  • Your topic and the general arc of your narrative
  • The contribution your PechaKucha would make to the EPIC community
  • How your PechaKucha engages the EPIC2025 theme Intelligences
  • How your creative combination of narrative and images will create a space of reflection, exploration, insight, provocation, or other type of collective experience at EPIC2025
• A draft PechaKucha presentation (PDF) including slides and a performance script. Please note that:
  • Even in draft form, your images and narrative should give a clear sense of how your story will unfold and impact the audience. The more complete your draft, the more accurately we can evaluate its quality and contribution.
  • You may include notes about specific elements of your draft; for example, regarding an image you intend to create for a specific slide. Please add these notes on the slides themselves (do not use the “speaker notes” function).
• AI Disclosure: You will be asked to disclose some uses of generative AI, see Submission Rules for details.
• Ethics Disclosure: For research you conducted that is represented in your proposal and presentation/publication, you will be asked to disclose the ethics review/protocol used.

Technical notes:

• To facilitate anonymous peer review, do not name or reference the identity or affiliations of any co-authors within the proposal document itself. You will enter this information separately in the submission process.
• Images should be 72 dpi (screen resolution) to keep file size manageable.
• Image credits should appear next to each image or on a separate slide at the end. If genAI was used to create any of your images, note the tool and prompts used.
• PechaKucha is a trademarked format and presenters may not deviate from it (20 still images that show for 20 seconds each).

SUBMIT HERE! ▸
note: the submission platform is not linked to your EPICpeople.org account

Submission deadline: February 21.

If you have questions, don’t hesitate to contact us: PechaKucha@EPICpeople.org

Attention makers, creators, and doers!

The Arts & Experiences track at EPIC2025 creates space for imagining, exploring, and engaging with multiple forms of intelligence through diverse media, design, sensorial, or interactive experiences. We invite proposals that creatively engage conference attendees with the conference theme Intelligences:

• What would it mean to foreground multiple, collective, or distributed intelligences in our lives and professional work?
• How do intelligences emerge in systems and relationships among humans and non-humans?
• What is the value of questioning or complicating standard assumptions and hierarchies of intelligence?
• How do different intelligences come into dialogue? When do we encounter (or create) incommensurability?
• How have, or will, human, machine, ecological, and material intelligences shape our world and future possibilities?

Please read these guidelines and, if you have questions, don’t hesitate to reach out to Ian Dull, Sanna Rauhala, and Lydia Timlin-Broussard, Co-chairs of Arts & Experiences: Arts@EPICpeople.org

Formats and Facilities

Our stunning conference venue is Dipoli at Aalto University. You can get a sense of the space with this 360 tour. Arts & Experiences proposals can take place indoors or outdoors (rooms/spaces are noted in parentheses):

• Indoor Arts & Experiences can be either:
  • Floor/table installations that attendees can view or interact with throughout the conference, principally during breaks and our 1.5 hour lunch (Sief, Capitolium). Tables will be provided for installations. We cannot use the walls for hanging or installation, but there is floor space for things like pop-up banners.
  • Time-specific activities, presentations, or projections – 30 minutes maximum – can take place in a seminar room (Takka, Palaver; 30–50 people) or stages (Kaleva or Lumituuli). In seminar rooms, chairs, tables, a projector & screen, and whiteboards are available.
• Outdoor Arts & Experiences: 30-minute activities in the outdoor spaces and trails around the conference venue, which lend themselves to experiential encounters with nature. Please note that Finnish autumn weather can vary from beautiful sunny days to rain – consider weather-proofing or adaptability in your design.

Please note: We do not have a budget to support production or shipping of your materials. Contact Art@EPICpeople.org with questions about equipment and space.

Review and Selection

Proposals are anonymized and reviewed by the Arts & Experiences Committee. Reviewers assess the proposal according to the criteria in the Evaluation & Selection section, with specific reference to the fit for Arts & Experiences. Because facilities, timing, and technical needs are important for this format, we may reach out to you to ask clarifying questions.

Proposals must include the following elements:

• Submission Title
• Statement of Contribution: Maximum 150 words. A concise statement about what attendees will learn or gain through your installation or experience and the contribution it makes to the EPIC community.
• Project Description: Maximum 500 words. Please be sure to address:
  • Using the parameters listed in Formats & Facilities above, identify the format you are proposing and the type of space you would need
  • Describe your concept and its rationale, how it engages the conference theme Intelligences, and relevance of ethnography or sociocultural approaches
  • Describe the experience from attendees’ perspective: what will they see, encounter, do, etc.
  • Without identifying yourself, describe your level of experience and expertise in the production of similar arts or experiences
• Technical Details:
  • For installations: dimensions, materials you will use, whether electricity is required, and other relevant technical specifications.
  • For interactive experiences: the duration of the proposed experience, the minimum and maximum number of participants, whether a projector and screen will be used, and any other materials you hope to use.
  • For outdoor experiences: how your design can be adjusted in case of rainy conditions.
• Work Sample: An excerpt or sample to give the committee a clear sense of the artistic direction or experience. This could be video or audio, photos, sketches, etc. You may upload your work sample itself or a link to it (don’t forget password/credentials if required for reviewers to access!).
• AI Disclosure: You will be asked to disclose some uses of generative AI, see Submission Rules for details.
• Ethics Disclosure: For research you conducted that is represented in your proposal and presentation/publication, you will be asked to disclose the ethics review/protocol used.

To facilitate anonymous peer review, do not name or reference the identity or affiliations of any creators within the proposal. You will enter this information separately in the submission process. We realize that fully anonymizing a project that could include your voice or face might be difficult. Please do your best.

SUBMIT HERE! ▸
note: the submission platform is not linked to your EPICpeople.org account

Submission deadline: February 21.

If you have questions, don’t hesitate to contact us: Art@EPICpeople.org

The EPIC Graduate Colloquium is a forum for master’s and PhD students in the supervised research or later stages of their program to:

• present and discuss their work with senior practitioners in private, public, and nonprofit sector organizations;
• learn skills for communicating expertise and capabilities in a range of organizational settings, including the job search and hiring processes; and
• explore career pathways, goals, and strategies with mentors and a cohort of peers.

Please read the following information carefully and, if you have questions, don’t hesitate to contact Juuli Hilska and Lauren Rhoades, Graduate Colloquium Co-chairs: Colloquium@EPICpeople.org

Who Should Apply?

We welcome students from any discipline who engage with ethnography or sociocultural theory, methodologies, and expertise in the context of industry, civic or nonprofit organizations, or other social institutions.

All topics are welcome and we warmly welcome students from everywhere in the world. We especially anticipate graduate work related to the EPIC2025 theme Intelligences and students studying in, and topics related to, the Northern European, Baltic, and Nordic regions. The conference will be a unique opportunity to showcase these regional perspectives on ethnographic methodologies and practice.

Program Details

Graduate Colloquium sessions take place both virtually and in-person before and during EPIC2025 in Helsinki, Finland.

• An online series of roundtables and workshops take place in the months preceding the conference, including topics such as understanding the non-academic job landscape, how to present your work in non-academic settings (e.g., to stakeholders, collaborators, and hiring managers), and preparation for the in-person colloquium.
• At the in-person conference in Helsinki (September 16–19), students present to a panel of senior EPIC members, followed by discussion and feedback. Colloquium participants are expected to attend all sessions. Throughout the conference they have the opportunity to network with our community of researchers and practitioners in all sectors.

Successful colloquium applicants will commit to:

• Participating in a series of online workshops/roundtables
• Participating in online, one-on-one office hours with EPIC community members to develop your approach to presenting your doctoral or masters work in non-academic and job-related contexts
• Presenting and discussing your work with a panel of EPIC community members in Helsinki at EPIC2025

Graduate Colloquium participants will also have the opportunity to serve as a volunteer at the conference.

Review and Selection

Proposals are anonymized and reviewed by the Colloquium committee. The evaluation and selection of proposals will be based on:

• the clarity and quality of the application;
• the ability of the EPIC community to provide valuable mentorship with respect to the applicant’s research and career goals; and
• the alignment between the applicant’s work and EPIC’s mission to promote the integration of ethnographic principles, social and cultural perspectives, and a dynamic approach to theory and method into business and organizational practice.

Preparing Your Proposal

You will be asked to submit:

• Submission Title: A working title of your master’s or doctoral project.
• Statement of Goals and Motivation: Maximum 200 words. Describe your career goals (whether academic or non-academic), why engaging with the EPIC community in particular will be valuable for you, and what you hope to gain from the colloquium. Please review EPICpeople.org for information about the EPIC community.
• Research Overview: Maximum 900 words (not including references). Statement about your doctoral or master’s research, including: context and rationale; research questions and methodology; current status of your course of study and expected completion date; and contributions (or expected contributions) to your field of interest.
• Volunteering at EPIC2025: You will select Yes or No to indicate whether you are interested in volunteering at EPIC2025 in Helsinki. Volunteers receive a complimentary conference registration and dinner ticket. Selecting No does not in any way affect the success of your application.
• Optional Letter of Recommendation: from a research mentor or advisor, sent directly to Colloquium@EPICpeople.org
• AI Disclosure: You will be asked to disclose some uses of generative AI, see Submission Rules for details.
• Ethics Disclosure: For research you conducted that is represented in your proposal and presentation/publication, you will be asked to disclose the ethics review/protocol used.

FAQ

I’m not doing a purely ethnographic research project, will this hurt my application?

The EPIC community comes from diverse fields and our work is adaptive and interdisciplinary (we would argue that “pure” ethnography doesn’t even exist!). We welcome your application if you feel that ethnographic or sociocultural approaches and principles are an important component of your graduate work. Common disciplines represented by colloquium participants include social sciences, information and computer sciences, design, business and marketing, public health and health sciences, humanities, and others. If you feel the colloquium is relevant for you, please do not be dissuaded because you are concerned about whether you are in the “right field”.

What if I can’t attend the conference in Helsinki?

Attending the EPIC conference is a powerful experience for colloquium participants, but we recognize how challenging it can be for students to attend, particularly considering average student incomes, travel costs, and work and family commitments. This year, in addition to a cohort of students who will attend sessions online and in-person in Helsinki, we will support a small number of students in a parallel, online version of the portion of the colloquium that happens in Helsinki (final presentation and discussion of your work with a panel of senior practitioners). EPIC is a nonprofit organization powered by volunteers, and we hope to expand online participation in the future. You will be asked to specify in your application which participation option you are applying for.

Will my application be seen as weak if I can’t acquire letters of recommendation in time for the proposal deadline?

Letters of recommendation are optional. They are not a central part of our decision-making process for acceptance to the colloquium. They may help us understand more about the context of your program and research; we also hope that requesting a letter will encourage your department faculty to support your participation, especially with funding! However, we evaluate your own articulation of your research and career goals, as well as the ability of the EPIC community and our mentors to support those. Please review the Evaluation and Selection section here.

Do you offer financial support?

As a nonprofit organization powered by volunteers, we cannot support travel and related expenses. Colloquium participants are prioritized for volunteer roles in Helsinki, which affords them complimentary conference registration (including breakfasts, lunches, and coffees) and a conference dinner ticket, as well as opportunities to network with attendees. Alternatively, participants may pay the student conference registration rate, which is more than 60% off the regular rate. We also suggest students explore funding opportunities with their departments. Students living and earning in economies with low purchasing power relative to the United States and Finland, particularly those in the ‘global south’, are encouraged to submit a financial inclusion request.

SUBMIT HERE! ▸
note: the submission platform is not linked to your EPICpeople.org account

Submission deadline: February 21.

Questions? Don’t hesitate to reach out: Colloquium@EPICpeople.org