EASY-ECO Manchester Conference

Participants

The conference will bring together senior academics and young researchers, policy-makers, impact assessment and evaluation practitioners, and commissioning agents, from the expanded EU and other countries, to share their experiences and gain greater insight into the prospects and challenges of using impact assessment approaches to strengthen sustainable development in the European region and beyond.

An invitation for papers

The Manchester conference will set the scene for the remainder of the EASY-ECO 2005-2007 Series, by addressing in particular the strategic issues of impact assessment for sustainable development. Papers are sought on theory, practice and specific experience in all areas of strategic impact assessment, particularly those from which lessons may be learned in the wider context.

Fields of application include:

• national and regional strategies and policies for sustainable development;
• EU policy, directives and international agreements (IA, extended IA, sustainability IA);
• national legislation and policy-making (regulatory IA);
• regional, sectoral and local planning (implementation and integration of the SEA Directive);
• EU structural funds and agricultural funds (especially in new member states);
• Local Agenda 21 activities, urban and rural development programmes;
• corporate sustainability and corporate responsibility;
• development assistance programmes.

Techniques of current interest include:

• integrated assessment;
• optimisation techniques such as cost-benefit analysis and multi-criteria analysis;
• quality standards;
• indicators;
• monitoring and policy adaptation;
• attribution of effects at the strategic level.

Contextual issues that may be addressed include:

• integration into policy-making processes;
• institutional transformation and capacity-building;
• identification of goals and needs;
• stakeholder identification and involvement;
• evaluation culture and strategies to enhance it;
• expert networks, evaluation societies and other networking possibilities (particularly in relation to new member states and neighbouring countries).

Case studies
We are very much interested in case studies from evaluators or commissioners. There will also be space available for poster presentations.

Submission of papers
Delegates who wish to present a paper or poster should send an abstract by 28th February 2005. Full papers should be received by the organisers by 2nd May 2005. Please send your abstracts via e-mail to Debra Whitehead (debra.whitehead@manchester.ac.uk) and copy this to Judith Galla (judith.galla@wu-wien.ac.at). Abstracts should have 250-300 words and be sent in Word document format, file named "your last name_abstract_manchester.doc". Abstracts not meeting these criteria cannot be processed.

For further details on the submission of papers, please contact:

Colin Kirkpatrick
Email: colin.kirkpatrick@man.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0)161 275 2807

Clive George
Email: clive.george@man.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0)161 275 0812

Joe Ravetz
Email: joe.ravetz@man.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0)161 275 6879