14 September 2026

In the mid-1990s the Scottish Public Management Network was established to bring together researcher working across Scotland on public administration and management. After some years the network was discontinued, and much lamented, due to the lack of institutional capacity. The network has now been reinvigorated by an initial partnership between the Universities of Edinburgh, Stirling, Strathclyde, Glasgow and Glasgow Caledonian.
Group photo of 12 people at the Scottish Public Management Research Conference 2026

A founding conference was held under the auspices of CenSE at the University of Edinburgh Business School on 2 June 2026. The daylong event included papers looking at topics including value cocreation, public service ecosystems, collaboration, performance and social enterprise. The full programme was as follows:

  • Stephen Osborne, Tie Cui, Maria Cucciniello & Ricardo Gomes: “Through a lens, darkly? Using ecosystem theory to understand and evaluate the Covid-19 mass vaccination programme and its response to vaccine hesitancy and refusal”
  • Paula Rossi & Kristy Docherty: “Collaboration and conflict in fostering public services' systems change: evidence from the Scottish Prevention Hub”
  • Kirsty Strokosch: “Stigma, value co-creation and systems change: rethinking paid employment for people with learning disabilities and autism”
  • Scott Ogilvie: “Understanding Value Co-Creation and Organizational Change in the Third Sector”
  • Clare Fitzgerald: “Problematising co-creation’s democratic credentials through narrative review: towards a representative approach”
  • Edwina Zhu: “Can a Public Service Ecosystems perspective help NGOs better measure blended value?”
  • Michael Roy & Simon Teasdale: “Assembling Social Enterprise: How and why social movements become part of the state apparatus”

Following on from the conference it was agreed that the founding universities would seek to make this an annual event with an open invitation to all universities with public administration and management capacity across Scotland. The next conference is to be held at the University of Stirling in 2027 (date to be agreed).

A Call for Papers will be issued in the Spring and all proposals will be reviewed by the steering committee. Further information is available from stephen.osborne@ed.ac.uk