16th IFPSM Summer School registration now open

The International Federation of Purchasing and Supply Chain Management (IFPSM) is conducting this year’s summer school on ‘Advanced Purchasing Research’ in Austria in July.

The IFPSM Summer School is organized with the aim to provide an opportunity of an intensive working together of talented young scholars from all around the world with some of the leading professors of the field. So far we had 216 students from about 30 countries of Europe, North America, Asia and Africa

Objectives
The Summer School is intended:
• to help participants in defining relevant research topics and powerful methods;
• to provide a forum for talented young scholars from various regions of the world for exchanging ideas and establishing a research network;
• to promote the profession of purchasing and materials management by contributing to the creation of high standard dissertation of the participants.

Eligibility
Participants may come from any country of the world provided that they meet the following requirements. They must be:
• enrolled PhD, postgraduate (or advanced graduate) students of an accredited institute of higher education;
• in the phase of writing a dissertation based on original research on purchasing or a closely related area (materials management, logistics, supply chain management, etc.);
• fluent in English and willing to take an active part in discussions in that language;
• able to present a letter of recommendation from one regular faculty member of the institution they are enrolled in.

The deadline for registration is May 1, 2011.

The program
The professional program starting on July 8, 2011 will consist of four elements:

1. Presentation and discussion of research subjects delivered by invited speakers. These sessions will be directed by internationally acknowledged scholars, who will present a topic from their own research field and discuss with the students possible approaches and methods to handle the subject.

2. Presentation and discussion of research papers prepared by the school participants. Papers submitted will be distributed among participants and the discussions will be led by invited professors. The discussion of each student paper will be opened by two invited discussants (one professor and one student). The main idea is that the students discuss the papers among each other.

3. Practitioners’ presentations of hot issues in purchasing and related management areas. These presentations shall be of orienting type and will be given by invited speakers.

4. There will be methodological discussions and group exercises in order to help the participants’ research and teaching skills.

5. We organize a roundtable discussion on a hot topic in purchasing and supply management practice. The subject of the discussion will be suggested by the Research Committee of IFPSM and one of the Committee’s members will serve as moderator.

The venue of the school
Internationales Kolleg of the University of Salzburg
A-5020 Salzburg, Billrothstr. 10-18., Austria
Tel.: +43 (662) 93030-0 Fax: +43 (662) 93030-77
www.guesthouse.at
www.studentenheim.at

Participation fee
The IFPSM is the main sponsor of the project, but contribution is expected from other organizations as well. This assistance makes it possible that the participants have to pay a relatively low, all-inclusive participation fee: EUR 690.

Click here for more information.

Application form.