The ESTER network, established in 1991, involves more than 60 universities throughout Europe and offers high-level research training for PhD candidates in an international context. This year’s Research Design Course will take place in Vienna and will be hosted by the University of Vienna, Department of Economic and Social History (univie.ac.at) and Department of Economics.
The organising committee is formed by Annemarie Steidl, Kirsten Wandschneider (both University of Vienna), Rogier van Kooten and René van Weeren (both N.W. Posthumus Institute).

The Research Design Course (RDC) is a format promoted by ESTER since the late 1990s. The RDC assists candidates in setting up a high quality and well-designed plan for their dissertation under the guidance of a team of senior researchers and research design specialists whose task it is to provide comments and feedback.
Thus, the RDC is not a “course” in which an instructor will give a lecture or that you will discuss historical theories in a seminar setting. Instead, it is focussed on presentations of individual projects and the ensuing discussions on how to improve them.
Therefore, you will be asked to write a paper in which you discuss the design of your research. The aim of this methodological reflection is to investigate the scientific procedures that historians use to reach scientific explanations and to combine all analytical elements into a synthetic and coherent historical account. In this paper, you will also prepare a detailed work plan for the dissertation. The length of the paper should be around 25 pages and needs to provide the structure of the remaining research, and therefore the dissertation itself. Subsequently, you will give a brief presentation during the conference, act as reporter, chair and peer commentator for other papers, and will receive feedback from junior and senior scholars in the field.

The goal of the RDC course is to offer PhD candidates assistance in:
• Sharpening and refining their research questions;
• Strengthening the focus of their research;
• Increasing the consistency of their overall dissertation plan;
• Making explicit the various theoretical and methodological choices that must be made during the project;
• Improving the composition of the dissertation;
• Learn how to provide feedback to your peers;
The RDC course thereby aims at a better awareness of research choices that can be made.

More information (pdf)

Deadline for application: 2 June 1 July 2023

Application Form ESTER RDC 2023

(30.3.2023)