What is the EGPA?
The European Group for Public Administration (EGPA) is a scientific association dedicated to the field of European administrative sciences. It brings together academics and administrative practitioners from across Europe and provides a platform for scholarly exchange and networking. Of particular importance are the opportunities it offers to early-career researchers to establish themselves within the academic community. The EGPA supports the development of research projects, assists with the preparation of publications, and organises an annual conference hosted by universities in different European cities.
As a regional group of the International Institute of Administrative Sciences (IIAS) - which also includes regional entities in Latin America and Asia - the EGPA can draw on a long tradition. The parent organisation, IIAS, was founded in 1930 and promotes global networking in administrative sciences, a task that has become increasingly important in light of current geopolitical tensions and growing polarisation.
Why did you run for the presidency?
I have been active in the EGPA for many years - the University of Potsdam is an institutional member - and I owe the international dimension of my academic career largely to this association. Numerous publications and valuable insights have emerged from my active participation in EGPA activities; it has truly been a springboard for my career. After being approached several times about running for the presidency, the time felt right to take this step.
Leading figures in Potsdam and European administrative science have shaped the EGPA, including Werner Jann, the former holder of my professorship, and our long-standing visiting professor Geert Bouckaert, both former EGPA presidents. At a time when the European public administration community is experiencing tensions and some members seek to create separate organisations, I see it as particularly important to preserve the EGPA as a strong European association within an global setting while simultaneously renewing it and preparing it for the future.
What are your plans as president?
My primary objective is to reform the EGPA within the framework of the IIAS. This involves setting new priorities, including greater autonomy in financial, institutional and content-related matters. Existing partnerships in public administration should be strengthened and revitalized - whether through Trans-European dialogues between Western and Eastern Europe (TED), exchanges with researchers in the United States within the Transatlantic Dialogue (TAD), or new formats with other regions, such as the Mediterranean Dialogue (MED).
I also see a need to reshape the partnership with the IIAS by granting the regional groups greater freedom of action, following a federal model. In terms of conferences, I would like to introduce more modern formats and greater flexibility. The Permanent Study Groups (PSGs) are the backbone of the EGPA, and while I aim to strengthen them, I also want to experiment with new formats such as Ad Hoc Groups and Specialised Panels, making them permanent where appropriate. The newly established EGPA Booster Grant of €20,000, which will be publicly advertised, will support this process.
Another key priority is support for disadvantaged regions. The goal is to facilitate participation in EGPA conferences for researchers from these areas, including through financial assistance. To this end, we have already established a Travel Grant totalling €15,000. I also intend to reform the PhD Symposium to turn it into a more productive platform for early-career researchers. Finally, I would like to make the organisation of conferences more attractive overall and strengthen local organisers, who ultimately deliver our most important “product”: the annual conferences.
How does your research benefit from this?
The EGPA is of immense value for early-career researchers, including my doctoral students, particularly in terms of international networking. It offers an outstanding forum for exchanging ideas with leading scholars who are often otherwise only familiar through their publications. Such encounters frequently lead to joint publications and collaborative research projects that span institutions and national borders.
Examples include the COST Action Local Public Sector Reforms (2013-2017), which I initiated and coordinated and which involved researchers from more than 30 countries, as well as my visiting professorship at Lund University, which emerged from EGPA contacts. Many of my articles and books have grown out of work within EGPA Permanent Study Groups. These and other milestones have contributed significantly to my academic career.
What key issues do you see in the coming months and years?
Shared focal points for EGPA researchers include crisis governance, administrative resilience, digitalisation of public administration, democratic backsliding and large-scale transformations. Overarching all of these is, of course, the topic of artificial intelligence. At the same time, the scientific community faces global and intra-European challenges that foster division and complicate cooperation. These include geopolitical tensions involving countries such as Hungary and Russia, as well as questions surrounding collaboration with China and the BRICS countries. Nevertheless, as researchers, we should not withdraw our willingness to engage. Instead, we should continue to build bridges within our community - bridges that purely political logic often fails to support.
What challenges will administrations face in 2026?
One of the central challenges will remain the polycrisis, in which multiple crises overlap and interact. Measures taken to address one crisis can easily become the trigger for the next—a development of particular relevance to administrative science, given that public administrations are typically key actors in crisis management. Digitalisation and artificial intelligence will also remain high on the agenda. Key questions include the extent to which AI has already been implemented in the public sector, how it is transforming administrative routines, how national approaches differ, and how AI can both enhance service delivery and generate new risks.
In addition, long-standing issues such as public personnel management, administrative reform, performance management and bureaucracy reduction will continue to attract attention. These topics are also closely linked to my work on the National Regulatory Control Council (NKR).
Further information:
On Prof. Kuhlmann's EGPA presidency: https://www.uni-potsdam.de/de/ls-kuhlmann/egpa
On Prof. Kuhlmann's research: https://www.uni-potsdam.de/de/ls-kuhlmann/lehrstuhl/sabine-kuhlmann
On the European Group for Public Administration (EGPA): https://www.iias-iisa.org/egpa/#