The halfway point: Reflections on CHANSE’s Mid-Term Conference 

By Luisa Nienhaus, Sara Perry and Anna Simandiraki-Grimshaw 

with contributions from the CHANSE Coordination Office (NCN) 

 

Image: Group photo of CHANSE Mid-Term Conference attendees © CHANSE, Radu Nicolae

 

Outline

Under the headline of Building Networks, a total of 160 attendees made their way to Bucharest, Romania to attend this year’s CHANSE Mid-Term Conference held 18-19 September 2024.

Using feedback that we received at the CHANSE kick-off conference in Tallinn (1-2 June 2023), and insights from focus groups we conducted over Autumn 2023 and Spring 2024 with Early Career Researchers (ECRs) from most CHANSE projects, we aimed to ensure that attendees’ diverse needs and desires were at the heart of this year’s conference programme.

 

Image: A captive audience during the welcoming remarks © CHANSE, Radu Nicolae

 

With a wide range of transnational projects from the Humanities and Social Sciences, it was important to acknowledge common ground and embrace differences to foster conversation and debate.  

To do so, we allocated each project to one of six common themes for thematic parallel sessions:  

  • Imagining and new imaginaries. 
  • Citizen-state relationships. 
  • Emotional, mental, and physical wellbeing. 
  • Methodological challenges in working across qualitative and quantitative data. 
  • Ethics in data, research, professional and community practice. 
  • Navigating stakeholder needs and interests. 

These themes had been discussed with ECRs beforehand and voted upon by CHANSE Principal Investigators through an online poll conducted after the kick-off conference. The associated sessions gave projects the opportunity to present their work, compare and contrast the different approaches used and challenges faced, and engage in debate with colleagues, while focussing on a common theme.  

Two plenary sessions, Doing ‘Digital Good’ and Influencing Policy, were also held, exploring interests and concerns that had been identified as common ground across CHANSE projects. Seeking to reflect the diverse audience and cater for their varying interests, the sessions included invited speakers who ranged from academics and policy makers to consultants, resulting in equally diverse debate and reaction from the audience.  

As Building Networks was this year’s conference theme, we organised two parallel networking sessions for attendees to meet new people and to build networks that go beyond one’s own project. While the Futures Networking workshop was designed with ECRs, funding body and external representatives in mind, and the General Networking session with more senior researchers, both sessions offered a designated space to meet new peers in a focused way. Overall, the sessions were well received and ensured that everyone had the opportunity to further build their networks and debate about the future. The Futures Networking workshop, in particular, struck a chord – one individual noted after the fact that despite being initially sceptical, their perspective was profoundly changed as a result of their participation.  

To foster the building of new networks even further, the KEF team, led by Sara Perry, opened the application process for two cross-project initiatives, each of which is intended to enable at least three CHANSE funded projects to collaborate to produce distinct forms of knowledge exchange.  

The conference also provided the project teams with an opportunity to learn about the planned EU partnership on Social Transformations and Resilience (STR). This 7-10-year initiative, starting in 2027, will focus on four impact areas: 

  1. Modernisation of social protection systems and essential services  
  1. Future of work 
  1. Education and skills 
  1. Fair transition towards climate neutrality 

The STR programme will announce annual calls for transnational research projects and further enhance Knowledge Exchange between academia and other stakeholders, such as policy makers and social partners. Information about this programme will be provided on the CHANSE website and social media. 

 

Images: Group discussions as part of the General Networking session Images  © CHANSE, Radu Nicolae

 

Evaluation 

Overall, this year’s conference and programme can be considered a success. The majority of those who evaluated the conference (n=53) indicated that their conference experience was either Good (45.3%) or Excellent (30.2%).  

The efforts to address the input of those who attended the kick-off conference were also recognised: “It was quite nicely done and I really appreciate that last year’s feedback was seriously considered.”  

94.3% of respondents’ (n=53) indicated that they attended at least one of the plenary sessions, with most commenting positively or neutrally about their experiences (75.5% total).  

For the General Networking session, 100% of respondents (n=31) who participated in the session said that they met someone new. 54.8% of those indicated that they would follow up with their new contacts after the conference, while 32.3% said Maybe and 12.9% said they would not.   

The Futures Networking workshop was also a success. Led by Fisayo Oyewale, with the support of peer-facilitators, 93.8% of participants (n=16) said they would describe the workshop as Excellent (31.3%) or Good (62.5%). In addition, 93.8% of respondents indicated that they felt that their ideas and opinions were valued during the workshop.  

All in all, the diversity both amongst the projects and attendees, as well as the presentations, created an environment in which conversations and debates were encouraged and fostered, while emphasising the importance of being able to understand people, both within and outside the different projects. 

 

Going forward 

With 2024 coming to an end, we are looking forward to 2025 and the various workshops and outputs it will bring, including planning for the final CHANSE conference to be held on 8-9 September 2025 in Kraków, Poland. Drawing on this year’s conference feedback, we are striving to include the following elements in that conference:  

  • providing opportunities for all attendees to hear and learn from each CHANSE project (i.e., no parallel sessions);
  • allowing time for individual project meetings, based on positive feedback from similar time allocated at the 2024 conference; 
  • allocating more time for cross-project networking and scheduling the first session on Day 1 to allow follow-up across the event; 
  • investigating the possibility of hosting a networking session for representatives of funding bodies, as well as creating opportunities for attendees to meet with these representatives; 
  • facilitating different ways through which projects can present findings, such as:  
    • multimedia displays or exhibitions, including videos, sensory experiences and creative outputs  
    • hands-on activities  

We are also conscious and grateful for input from attendees of the 2024 conference around ways to improve the wider experience – beyond sessions alone – and will strive to positively incorporate them. We look forward to welcoming project teams and other representatives to the final CHANSE conference in Kraków, Poland in September 2025. 

 

Acknowledgements 

We, the CHANSE-KEF Team, would like to take this opportunity to whole-heartedly thank the CHANSE Coordination Office (NCN) and colleagues from the Executive Agency for Financing Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation Funding (UEFISCDI), Romania for their hard work that went into this conference. Their support helped the KEF team to focus on the development and implementation of the conference programme, as described above.