Call for Expressions of Interest: KonKoop Early Career Lab

The KonKoop (Cooperation and Conflict in Eastern Europe) Research Network is a consortium of academic and research institutions in Germany, including the Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies (IOS), investigating conflict and cooperation dynamics and spatial configurations in Eastern Europe, Southeast Europe, Central Asia, and the Caucasus. The network is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR).

KonKoop is currently inviting expressions of interest from early career researchers from any disciplinary background (particularly PhD researchers, early post-doctoral researchers, and young professionals) to join its (free) Early Career Lab (ECL) initiative, which is intended to become a robust future community of early career scholars. The Lab will be coordinated by the Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies (IOS) in Regensburg, Germany.

Benefits

To this end, members of the ECL's academic community will (amongst other benefits):

• Receive vital research support and professional skills training in online and in-person workshops arranged by the network's ECL on topics such as translating data into policy recommendations, effective scientific research and writing, science communication online, and the role of Large Language Models (LLMs) in research and scholarship.
• Have access to advice and support from the wider KonKoop network and be able to develop various skill sets from the range of tools within it, including the Multi-Perspective Visualisation Laboratory for Peace and Conflict Cartography (VisLab), hosted by Dr. Mela Zuljevic (IfL), which can direct scholars on how to critically integrate visualisations and maps as materials of analysis, create maps or visualisations to represent their research, perform Geographic Information System (GIS) or spatial analysis, consult on visual and data storytelling approaches, and so on; and the Multi-Method Data Laboratory for Conflict and Cooperation in Eastern Europe (DataLab), hosted by Dr. Ivaylo Dinev (ZOiS) through which researchers can gain insights on data literacy and data triangulation through use of mixed and multi method research methodologies, and further publish short pieces on method, data, or perspective of research ethics through the DataLab blog.
• Engage in mutual knowledge transfer and science communication, supporting each other's scholarship.

The objective of the ECL is to facilitate the development and communication of scholarship being produced by its community to a broader and more diverse audience of stakeholders (including government policymakers, traditional media, and diverse academic communities). It will also assist its members in their professional development and transition to mid-career professionals.

Candidate Profiles

For this call, we are particularly interested in:

• Researchers who are based at German institutions and/or come from and/or have a biographical background from Eastern Europe, Southeast Europe, Central Asia, or the Caucasus; and who are
• Studying topics related to KonKoop's general themes (defined in broadest terms) as they relate to the aforementioned regions, which may include (non-exhaustively) peace and conflict, borders and border-making, contested spaces, environmental and resource conflicts, war and trauma, nationalism and so on; and are
• From scholarly backgrounds such as (but not limited to) law, politics, history, geography, environmental sciences, anthropology and so on. We are especially interested in those researchers whose research may benefit from our aforementioned skills labs (VisLab and DataLab).

Please note that there are no costs associated with joining the ECL. Participation is free.

Details can be found in the full call. 

Any enquiries and all applications should be submitted to the academic lab coordinator Dr. Kenneth Chan at IOS (chan@ios-regensburg.de) no later than Friday, 10 September 2026.