• What does CEPR offer to researchers?
• How does one become a CEPR Researcher?
• Responsibilities of CEPR Researchers

CEPR has over 600 Research Fellows, Affiliates and Associates.

What does CEPR offer to researchers?

The Centre offers a set of services to its Fellows and Affiliates and provides them with opportunities to take advantage of these services. What are these services?

We can help raise funds for research activities. The Centre coordinates a wide range of research projects, networks, conferences and workshops, some very large-scale, some involving only one or two researchers. The Centre takes ideas for new research initiatives, put forward by its Research Fellows and Affiliates, from initial stages to fully developed project proposals which are then presented to funding bodies. We would therefore expect Fellows and Affiliates to bring to CEPR their ideas for new research initiatives and to work with Programme Directors and the Centre's staff in elaborating these ideas. We also hope that Fellows and Affiliates will respond enthusiastically to new research initiatives which the Centre is developing in areas which overlap with their own research interests, contributing to planning these initiatives and participating when they receive funding.

We can also administer research projects. We will agree a budget with the research coordinator before the project begins and help them manage and control the finances of the project by regular monitoring of expenditure against budget. We will also take responsibility for preparing the financial and narrative reports required by the project funders. We would therefore expect Fellows and Affiliates to work with the Centre's staff in administering projects involving CEPR.

Researchers may wish to organize workshops and conferences. We will take responsibility for administering these meetings, helping in the preparation of the programme and a detailed budget, despatching invitations, tracking responses, liaising with local organizers, and subsequently dealing with expense claims. Organizers of meetings provide an important service to the profession, and we value this aspect of involvement.

Another important dimension of involvement is participation in CEPR's meetings programme, including attendance at CEPR workshops and conferences, as well as participation in the annual symposia for the Fellows and Affiliates in each Programme Area. Researchers should check the CEPR Diary from time to time and contact us if there is a meeting scheduled which they would like to attend. We track meetings participation closely, so as to identify those Fellows and Affiliates who appear not to be participating in meetings, and to bring these cases to the attention of the Programme Directors well before any decision concerning reappointment.

We also disseminate Fellows’ and Affiliates’ research in CEPR Discussion Papers, the CEPR Bulletin, our newsletter “European Economic Perspectives”, reports and conference volumes. The best work of CEPR Research Fellows and Affiliates should appear first in the Centre's Discussion Paper Series. We want researchers to view the CEPR Series (together with their own Department's series) as the natural outlet for their research. Conversely, we shall not publish in the CEPR series papers that also circulate in other general purpose series. There are exceptions: in particular, NBER, with whom we have from the outset had an understanding to monitor and if necessary limit the overlap of the two networks and the number of papers which appear in both the CEPR and NBER series. CEPR also has a reciprocal relationship with IZA, Bonn, for papers to appear in both series, and is developing a similar initiative with ECGI.

There are other dissemination activities in which we hope many CEPR researchers will wish to be involved. One is participation in the preparation of one of our Reports, such as Monitoring European Integration, Monitoring the European Central Bank or Monitoring European Deregulation. Another is our series of public discussion meetings and invitation-only briefings, in which Research Fellows and Affiliates present research results to non-specialist audiences. This is an extremely important activity from the perspective of visibility to potential funders of CEPR, and can also enhance the standing of academics beyond the academic community. Several researchers have obtained lucrative consulting projects through their interaction with CEPR’s policy and private sector stakeholders.

Involvement in CEPR gives researchers increased opportunity to influence the policy-making process through research-based recommendations.

How does one become a CEPR Researcher?

CEPR Researchers are asked annually to suggest academic economists who are considered to be at the peak of their field. To maintain the academic excellence of CEPR, the appointment process is rigorous and is carried out by the Appointments Committee (President, CEO, Research Director and an academic member of the executive committee) with the relevant Programme Directors. This Committee meets once per year to review the CVs of applicants.

The appointment criteria are as follows:

Research Fellow must demonstrate an outstanding record of scholarly publications in leading international journals, an overlap with the Centre’s current research activities and the potential for collaboration with members of the Centre’s various research networks.

Eligibility for Research Affiliates includes not holding a tenured position within a university. This in practice means that they are not usually more than five years from their PhD. Affiliates are also evaluated based on publications record but since they are considered early in their careers, a judgement is made based as much on potential as on articles accepted for publication.

Research Associates are appointed to participate in a particular CEPR project or network where membership of CEPR is a prerequisite of their involvement in the network. They are appointed for the life of the project but do not hold all the rights of a Fellow or Affiliate. They are eligible to attend workshops held under the auspices of the project and publish Discussion Papers as a result of research conducted through the project. They do not receive all calls for papers in a programme area nor are they eligible to submit all their work to the CEPR DP series.

It is possible for a researcher to be appointed in more than one programme area, where their research transcends CEPR’s programme areas. In order to keep the number of researchers in any one programme at a manageable level, this should only happen when the PDs are convinced that the potential researcher would add to their programme area. This decision is left to the PDs as their quality has already been assured and it is just up to the PDs to be convinced that they are working in the area for their programme.

Responsibilities of CEPR Researchers

Once appointed, CEPR researchers are expected to become involved in the life of the Centre, through attending CEPR workshops and conferences, circulating their papers in the CEPR Discussion paper series, participating in the design of new CEPR research activities and contributing to dissemination activities or interacting with the policy community.

On this basis, appointment as a CEPR researcher is reviewed every four years for Research Fellows. For Research Affiliates, an initial appointment is made for four years and can then be renewed for a further three years. After the seven-year period, Affiliates are either promoted to Fellow status or their appointment is not renewed.

The criteria for reappointments are high-quality research output demonstrated by publication of CEPR discussion papers in top-ranked international journals, involvement in a range of CEPR activities and participation in policy-related activities. Involvement in CEPR activities includes researchers viewing the CEPR discussion paper series as the primary outlet, alongside their departmental series, in which their new work should appear.

In sum, as the counterpart to what we offer, we shall be looking for