Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography, Germany
Date: December 5-6, 2008
Deadline: August 31st, 2008
Opento: young researchers from different scientific disciplines

The European Science Foundation (ESF) and European Molecular Biology Organisation (EMBO) are organising a symposium on bacterial networks from 13 to 18 September in Sant Feliu de Guixols, Spain.

Organised by EuropaBio, the European Association for Bioindustries, the event will feature two workshops, networking sessions and a two-day forum with approximately 30 leading speakers from biotech research, academia and the industry as well as environmental organisations and the European Commission. The experts will assess the prospects for industrial biotechnology in Europe through presentations, question and answer sessions and panel discussions.

The European Workshop on Astrobiology will be held in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, from 1 to 3 September. The event is organised by the European Astrobiology Network Association (EANA), the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Space Exploration Institute Neuchâtel.

An international symposium on coping with global change in marine social-ecological systems will be held in Rome, Italy, from 8 to 11 July. The central goals are to share experiences across disciplines and to identify essential next steps and common elements and approaches that promote the resilience of marine social-ecological systems in the face of global changes.

Site: Graz, Austria
Organiser: Inter@nic network, the Competence Centre South East Europe at the University of Graz and the European Academy of Bolzano/Bozen
Topics: The conference shall gather academics working on questions of human and minority rights, post-conflict reconstruction, inter-ethnic reconciliation and dialogue, as well as on the role of Europeanization process with respect to ethnic reconciliation in the Western Balkans. It is expected the conference will serve as a point of departure for greater inter-institutional and inter-personal links in the Western Balkans and with other European institutions. Academics and researcher from the Western Balkans countries are particularly encouraged to apply. In addition to this, the conference is aiming to disseminate research findings of the FP6 funded research project “Human and Minority Rights in the Cycle of Ethnic Conflict”.

Date: November 20- 21, 2008
Site: Olomouc, Czech Republic
Organiser: Palacký University, Olomouc
Topics: The principal goal of the international conference is the presentation of partial outcomes of the project and their confrontation with similar foreign research projects. The conference sections will deal especially with theoretical approaches to the study of national interests in the EU and the development and advocacy of national interests of the Visegrad Group and other Member States in the EU institutions. The organizers would like to invite mainly leading specialists from Central and Western Europe, who address the theoretical approaches to national interests in the EU, while a special panel with several Members of the European Parliament from the Visegrad countries is designed to provide a more practical insight into the promotion of national interests in the European Parliament and other EU institutions. The international conference is comprised of two main parts. During the first two days, we will be discussing the key issues of national interests and their advocacy in the Visegrad and other EU Member States in pre-specified panels (please see below). The last day of the conference will be dedicated to young scholars in order to enable them to present their professional views. Their proposals will be divided into several open panels. All contributions will be published in a conference volume.

The NORFACE ERA-NET is pleased to announce a call for project Outline Proposals relating to the theme: Migration in Europe – Social, Economic, Cultural and Policy Dynamics. The funded projects should, as a minimum, include research teams in three different NORFACE countries. Researchers from countries where migration originates can be included in the research teams when relevant. NORFACE aims to fund trans-European research projects in the scope of 500.000 - 4 million € under the following three themes: Migration - Causes and Consequences; Integration; Cohesion and Conflict. The applications must be submitted using the NORFACE Electronic Proposal Submission System (EPSS). The system includes guidelines for filling in the requested information.

Date: October 17-18, 2008
Site: Glasgow, Scotland, UK
Organiser: Centre for Russian, Central and East European Studies (CRCEES), University of Glasgow (Roberts-funded conference)
Topics: Numerous studies have analysed the relations between dominant and marginal(ised) ethnic groups in the countries of Eastern Europe. This workshop aims at integrating existing approaches and addresses the question of reciprocal influence and interaction between processes of integration and cohesion on different levels of analysis, such as between the institutional realm, majorities and non-majorities as social groups, and individual interactions. The conference is aimed at young researchers, advancing their scholarship or having recently completed their PhDs, providing for original contributions to the field, who are interested in interdisciplinary exchange. Papers are invited that address theoretical or methodological aspects, or focus on the analysis of cases of integration processes in Eastern European countries.

Date: September 26-27, 2008
Site: Cassino, Italy
Organiser: Università di Cassino
Topics: The aim of the conference is to collect state-of-the-art contributions on these issues, at the micro, macro and policy levels. Sections will be devoted to problems related to how we measure well-being, poverty and happiness, to differences between perceived and effective well-being, to how well-being is related to income growth and the distribution of income, to the role of economic policy. Papers on these or related topics are welcome. Authors are free to submit more than one paper for different sessions. If you wish to organize a session (4 papers on the same topic), please contact the organizing committee.