ECREA is opening a call for proposals for the hosting and organisation of the 2020 edition of the European Communication Conferences.

The first European Communication Conference took place in Amsterdam in 2005; the second in Barcelona in 2008; the third in Hamburg in 2010; the fourth in Istanbul in 2012; the fifth in Lisbon in 2014; the sixth in Prague 2016 and the 7th will be held in Lugano in 2018.
These conferences are major opportunities to show the know-how and the activities of the organising institution(s) and to foster the energy and creativity of the organisers around a large international project.

The Executive Board of ECREA has developed a framework document – Terms of Reference to define the format and give guidelines for the organisation of such a conference. Terms of Reference document is available here.

Interested members are asked to submit proposals for hosting the 2020 European Communication Conference. The institution hosting the Conference has to be active in the field of communication research and/or education and have sufficient experience and sufficient capacity (staff and support) to prepare and run the event.

The proposal for hosting the 2020 European Communication Conference must take the form of a document where candidate host institutions will: 1) Describe their general vision of the event (including the location, timing, duration and their organisational capacity). 2) Explicitly engage themselves to meet ECREA's requirements described in the Terms of Reference for Organising ECREA’s 8th European Communication Conference 2020 and provide the basic information regarding the way their proposal will meet ECREA's requirements. 3) Propose a draft financial plan. 4) Sketch out the strengths and weaknesses associated with the proposal. Please note that more than one institution can join forces and present a conjoint proposal, as long as they are in the same geographical area.

Deadline and submission
Proposals must be submitted by Wednesday, 15 November, 2017. The proposals must be sent by e-mail (attachment in .doc, .docx, .rtf, or .pdf format) to ECREA's General Secretary Irena Reifová (generalsecretary@ecrea.eu).

The ECREA Executive Board will then select one institution to act as local host, and possibly one runner-up to step in, in case the selected host encounters unforeseen difficulties.

Timeline
ECC conferences are normally held in October-November (unless the local host argues otherwise). The selection of the host for the conference will be decided upon at least two years prior to the event.

The timetable will be as follows:
- 30 June, 2017: the call for applications is open. Each candidate-host turns in a summary project describing how they see the event, where, how, etc.
- 15 November, 2017 : the call is closed. The Board considers applications and selects one which complies with all criteria, including the strategic priorities of the Board. Contacts are made with candidates for further information where necessary.

• 15 January, 2018: The Board announces the selected host institution to all institutional members that have applied. The selected institution is asked to develop a full organisational plan in close cooperation with ECREA’s Board. The full plan is to be ready by end of April 2018. If appropriate, the Board also selects a runner-up institution to host the conference should the selected institution be unable to deliver.
• April, 2018: The Board examines the full proposal and decides on its approval. If the plan is approved, the announcement is made public. If not, organisers are given one more month to fine-tune the proposal (with assistance of the Executive Board).
• 31 October–3 November, 2018: the ECC2020 conference host is announced at ECC2016 in Lugano.
• October – November, 2020: ECC2020 takes place.

For any inquiry, please contact ECREA's General Secretary, Irena Reifová at generalsecretary@ecrea.eu.

We are looking forward to receiving your proposals!