Research for Development in the South Caucasus: Discussing Methodological Innovations
CRRC’s 4th Methodological Conference
Tbilisi, June 24-25, 2016

About the Organizer: The Caucasus Research Resource Centers (CRRC) is a network of research and research support centers in the capital cities of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. Established in 2003, CRRC’s goal is to strengthen social science research and public policy analysis in the South Caucasus. Over the past thirteen years, CRRC has become a nexus of activity for the social science community in the South Caucasus by providing open access to data, scholarly literature, and professional training for social science researchers. For more information about CRRC, please visit: http://www.crrccenters.org/

About the Conference: This conference aims to discuss methodological approaches to studying recent political, economic and social trends in the South Caucasus, specifically focusing on innovative practices of empirical social research. It will bring together local and international participants that are committed to advancing social research practice across the South Caucasus. It will be a relatively small conference focused on constructive how-to discussions.

Possible Topics: We invite papers that explore a number of topics related to recent developments in the region and focus primarily on innovative methodological approaches to study them empirically using a wide range of methods: case studies, ethnographies, experimental surveys, as well as comparative research projects. Possible topics include, but are not limited to: Policy analysis, Migration, Employment, Social stratification, Youth, Education, Gender, and Identity.

Submission: Applicants are required to submit an abstract online via the abstract submission form by March 13, 2016. Abstracts should be a maximum of 500 words long, and should include the following:
• Title of the paper;
• Three to five keywords;
• Main author's name, title, affiliation, address, telephone, and email address;
• Co-authors’ names and affiliations, if applicable.

Important dates:

Submission of abstracts – March 13, 2016
Notification of pre-acceptance – March 23, 2016
Submission of full papers – April 30, 2016
Notification of final acceptance – May 20, 2016

Language of the conference – English

Financial Support: CRRC will provide 2 nights of lodging for the participants not based in Tbilisi, and lunch and dinner at the conference venue to all participants. Group transportation by road will be provided for all participants from Armenia and Azerbaijan. The cost of airfare for participants from Armenia and Azerbaijan will not be covered. Please note that CRRC offers a limited number of scholarships covering travel and accommodation expenses to support international postgraduate students and early career researchers who are in need of financial support in order to attend the conference. Scholarships will be granted based on the quality of submitted papers. Meanwhile, CRRC encourages scholars residing outside the South Caucasus to search for travel grants from other sources.

Workshops: The conference will be accompanied by workshops discussing innovative methods of policy-oriented applied social science research. We also welcome proposals for workshops concerning estimation techniques, measures, samples, data, comparisons, etc. to show the usefulness of the applied social science methods for answering substantive development questions. If you would like to submit a topic for a workshop, please send your CV and brief description of the workshop to: applications@crrccenters.org by March 11.

If you have any further questions concerning the submissions of abstracts, please contact us:

Address: CRRC-Georgia, 5 Chkhikvadze street (Former 5 Chavchavadze street), 0179, Tbilisi, Georgia
E-mail: applications@crrccenters.org
Tel: (995 32) 250 52 90, ext. 105

To download call for abstracts click here.