I am an interdisciplinary researcher working with environmental (social) enterprises, and much of the research within the EMES community is relevant to my research.

I have been a member for some time and this year I am very excited to go to my first EMES conference and get to know the people and their research closer. I am also happy to present my own research on challenges and opportunities related to legal frameworks for social enterprises.

Ellen Stenslie, PhD Researcher, Norwegian University of Life Sciences

One of the core missions of the EMES network is to engage and support PhD students and early career researchers. There are several initiatives led by EMES which help post-graduate students and young scholars conducting research on social enterprises and social and solidarity economy.

• EMES PhD Student Network—networking platform for community of PhD students around the world researching in social economy, social enterprise and other related topics.
• EMES PhD Summer Schools—providing PhD students a chance to present their research and in turn, get a feedback and gain an insight about the work being carried out by recognised academics in the field and fellow students.
• EMES Junior Experts’ Blog (EJEB)—online space to share ideas to develop research on social enterprise, run by PhD students.

Benefits for PhD students to attend this years’ conference

Given the commitment and the initiatives developed by EMES towards strengthening the capacities of PhD students and post-doctoral researchers in the field of social and solidarity economy, it is not surprising that this year’s EMES international research conference will pay once again special attention to PhD students and alumni. Two early career researches who have participated on the EMES research conferences before, confirm that there are multiple reasons which make attending these events worthwhile for the post-graduate students; as Francesca Calò concurrs:

EMES conference will give us, as PhD students, the possibility to discuss and present our research, to create networking with other academics and to learn the last stream of research and ideas developed in our field.

Francesca Calò, currently about to defend her PhD thesis at the Yunus Centre for Social Business and Health at Glasgow Caledonian University.

Danijel Baturina has participated on several EMES conferences, summer schools and research initiatives. He summarizes his experience in retrospect:

If you are into social entrepreneurship / social economy there is no better place than EMES conference to be. PhD students can learn a lot about different emerging and established theories in the field, new empirical evidence and directions in which social enterprises are “moving”. Especially useful is learning about the array of methodologies used in the research endeavours.

All of this are not only the learning points but could be a source of inspiration for developing your PhD thesis. Also, you will be able to “pull the sleeve” of the many authors you read and respect without them hold that against you.

In sessions, you will inevitable scrabble many small notes that would “breathe life” into your work. That could be the line or two about idea or author, or a theory that would serve you well. You would get a lot of “aha moments” where you see something that you can apply to the many different aspects of your work.

Danijel Baturina, postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Social Policy at Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb

All together 115 PhD students and young researchers registered for the 6th EMES International Research Conference, many of them for the first time. We sincerely hope that they will find the conference enjoyable and professionally rewarding. In our next story we will find out about their expectations, and learn that they anticipate this conference to be a unique convergence of networking, learning, and fun wrapped into a single package.