Events

The THEME for the 2021 Conference is TECHNOLOGY AND POLICY:

Technology has been a transformative force in society over the last several decades and its impact is moderated to a great extent by public policy. Technological advancements have provided valuable opportunities for refining and restructuring the existing public policy framework, along with many other positive implications for society at large. Policy regulates and drives technological interventions as diverse as artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, biotechnology, and digital identity. However, these technological innovations also generate ambiguity and anxiety, which has led to a collective sense of concern about the speed and intensity of these changes, and whether and how they can be harnessed for social benefit. Eventually, how we as an epistemic community prepare 2 for, respond to, and anticipate next steps will be critical for the future of the interface between technology and society. Public policy is critical for shaping technology as a force that raises awareness, assuages fears, builds trust, and opens development pathways for communities. The IPPN annual conference this year aims to draw upon the multidisciplinary nature of this topic to explore critical issues at the intersection of technology and public policy. The conference welcomes research from all disciplines that incorporates this approach. We are especially interested in organized panels and papers that are unique in their emphasis on observation and insight into the theme or any particular sub-theme.

SUBTHEMES:

Conference proceedings will be organized as streams around several sub-themes. These are:

• Sustainable Development Goals.
• Direct Benefit Transfers
• Investments in Human Capital
• Financial Inclusion
• Digital Identities
• Covid 19 Response 

These streams are not meant to be exhaustive, and we welcome submissions relevant to public policy which may not be directly aligned with the theme or any of sub-themes.

THE SUBMISSION PROCESS:

The IPPN Conference 2021 invites three categories of proposals: Expert Panels, Symposia, and Roundtables.

• Expert Panel: Expert Panels will include leading experts on a specific topic or issue within the broad conference theme. The panelists will bring their experience to bear on the topic, preferably from multiple perspectives. Specifically, these panels will be designed to provide the audience with a state-of-the-art view on the topic through an informed conversation among experts and serve to frame the broad contours of a problem or issue through moderated discussion. We strongly discourage PowerPoint presentations in the Expert Panels and encourage participation from practitioners as experts.

Each Expert Panel will be one hour long. The proposal should specify a Moderator and 4-5 panelists. The proposal should include a summary description (<500 words) and the name, designation, affiliation, short biography, and email address of each panelist.

• Symposium: We invite proposals that bring together 3-5 research papers on a common theme or topic. These Symposia will include dedicated one or two discussants who comment on the topic rather than on individual papers, and the discussion will be moderated to be focused on the symposium topic. The proposal should include a brief description of the topic, including its relevance to the conference theme, a Moderator, one to two discussants, and up to five presenters. Proposals can select the 75-minute slot (3 papers + 1 discussant) or 150-minute slot (5 papers + 2 discussants). Each paper should include the names, designations, affiliations and email addresses of the authors, in addition to the title and a 200-word abstract. Proposals that include practitioners as chairs, co-chair and presenters will be preferred.

• Roundtable Discussion: We invite proposals for roundtable discussion on topical issues relevant to the conference theme. Participation should be limited to 15 participants, drawn from different disciplines and sectors. Roundtables are most suited to facilitate conversations across divides – between disciplines as well as between research and practice – and are therefore designed to take the form of informed conversations rather than research presentations. The main thrust is to generate a lively debate, where participants can discuss thorny questions, discover partners, review new developments, and propose novel ideas for discussion. We will provide support to document the conversations and produce a report of the deliberations of each Roundtable. The proposal should include a concept note (<1000 words), a Chair, and the names, designations, affiliations and email addresses of at least 6 participants. These can be supplemented with other registered conference participants interested in the round-table discussion. The Round Table Chair will have the final discretion on selecting participants of the roundtable. Maximum time allocated for a Roundtable will be 90 Minutes.

The deadline for proposal submissions is 15th Jan, 2021 IST at 17:00hrs IST. Decisions will be notified no later than 31st Jan, 2021.

Research Papers: We welcome two kinds of abstracts:

• Advanced Research- Advanced Research presents results and conclusions for discussion.
• Research in Progress- Research in Progress presents ongoing work where results are either preliminary or yet to be obtained.

Abstracts should be strictly less than 200 words and should convey to the general reader why the research was done, what was found, and why the results are important for public policy. They should start with some brief BACKGROUND information: a sentence giving a broad introduction to the question comprehensible to the general reader, and then a sentence of more detailed background specific to your research. This should be followed by a onesentence description of the main OBJECTIVES and a sentence or two on the principal RESEARCH METHODS, followed by the primary RESULTS. Please note that results are NOT 4 required to be included for abstracts under the Research in Progress category. The last sentence of the abstract should outline the main CONCLUSIONS of the paper, in terms that will be comprehensible to all participants. Please do NOT include citations or abbreviations in the Abstract. In addition, each abstract should be accompanied by the names of the presenter and all co-authors, designations, affiliations and email addresses. Authors will also be able to specify whether they are willing to be included in a Full Talk Session (each presenter has 15 minutes to present), Lightening Talk sessions (each presenter has 5 minutes to present) or Poster sessions (dedicated 2-hour session for all posters).