Dear all,

We are very happy to share more information about the ICRN Contact Summit 2026.

When/How: Sunday July 5th to Tuesday July 7th in hybrid format: The summit is designed as a “post-conference” of the EASP General Meeting and includes elements of the annual ICRN Summit and a potential “booster-meeting” of the 2024 EASP small-group conference on collaborative intergroup contact research in Hamburg. Attendance during the last day is optional.

Where: The summit will be held at the FernUniversität Campus Centre (Kriegsstraße 100, 76133 Karlsruhe) in Karlsruhe, Germany. Less than 2hrs direct international high-speed train from Strasbourg (involving border-crossing from France to Germany).

Cost: There will be no conference fees. We plan to provide travel support (see below).

Organisers: ICRN and organizers of 2024 EASP small-group conference on collaborative intergroup contact research in Hamburg

Contents and Format: The meeting will consist of two parts: A “core ICRN meeting”, which will include a keynote address, delegate research presentations and an ICRN member meeting. This part will take from Sunday afternoon to Monday afternoon. The second part will be an optional “open working and collaboration space” from Monday afternoon to Tuesday afternoon. This time is freely available for meetings in dyads, and smaller and larger groups concerning a topic of their choice, and may include pre-determined groups and open calls for collaborations among Summit attendants. During this time, working groups that have been formed during the 2024 EASP small-group meeting in Hamburg have an opportunity to meet again.

If you plan to use the “open working and collaboration space” for a meeting, please inform Therese (maria-therese.friehs@fernuni-hagen.de) before March 8th to discuss your idea. Please indicate if the meeting you plan will be open for other ICRN Summit attendees to participate in and how many participants you expect. For open meetings, we will subsequently add this information in the registration process.

Participants will be free to choose how long they want to participate in the Summit and can arrange their travelling freely. Transition between on-site and digital delivery mode is possible.

Catering and Accommodation: The summit will be free of charge, but food and beverages will not be provided during the meeting. The summit will take place in Karlsruhe city centre, so you will have ample opportunities to get coffee, tea and snacks in close proximity. Also, a variety of accommodations for different budgets are available close-by.

Travel support: We are currently applying for funding to provide travel support for attendees who have no other funding source, early career attendees and attendees from structurally disadvantaged countries. More information will follow soon.

Registration and Acceptance: The registration/call for submissions to the ICRN Contact Summit 2026 will open in March. At that time, we aim to provide details on the opt-in options for the “open working and collaboration space “.

Attendance is open to ICRN members and non-members, regardless of whether they attended the 2024 EASP small group meeting or the EASP General Meeting in Strasbourg.

If you have any questions or queries about the meeting, please feel free to get in touch with Therese (maria-therese.friehs@fernuni-hagen.de).

We’re looking forward to the Contact Summit and hope to see all of you there!

Kind regards
Emine Bilgen, Patrick Kotzur, Stefania Paolini, Libby Drury, Rita Guerra, Shelley McKeown Jones and Lukas Wallrich on behalf of the ICRN

Maria-Therese Friehs, Sarina Schäfer, Mathias Kauff and Oliver Christ on behalf of the 2024 EASP small group meeting organizers