The conference fees for our 2026 conference depend on your affiliation with NIG

• The conference is free for people who are a NIG member (senior and PhD).
• The conference costs 225,- euros for people employed by a NIG member university. All member universities can be found here.
• The conference costs 285,- euros for people not employed by a NIG member university.

Are you unsure whether you are a member? Feel free to e-mail us!

The NIG conference aspires to simultaneously be a 1) high quality academic conference, 2) as well as a warm network event for the (open) research community around public governance in the Netherlands and Flanders, and also 3) an accessible event where our PhD candidates feel encouraged to present early work.

The conference has grown substantially in the past years, in part because the NIG community itself has grown and in part because scholars from other (inter)national institutions submit abstracts to the conference. In principle this is a positive thing which contributes to the quality of the conference, our first goal. Yet we need to manage the growth to ascertain that the conference continues to serve as an open network event (our second goal) which is accessible for our PhD candidates (third goal).

To facilitate and maximally balance the above goals, we apply the following rules of access:

1) Maximized participation
There is a maximum of 350 participants for the conference

2) Conditionally open early registration
Before December 20th, 2025 (23:59), the following groups of people are free to sign up for the conference:

• Max. 2 non-presenting chairs for each panel
• 1 author for each accepted paper
• All individual senior or PhD NIG members

You can register by filling out the form “Registration form 22nd NIG conference (5 & 6 February 2026)” To do this sign in to COMS via this link: https://coms.app/nig26/welcome.html. You will find the form on the left side of the screen. Once filled out, you will receive a confirmation with a payment link (if applicable) from NIG, which has to be paid to complete registration.

3) Open late registration
Between December 21st and January 14th 2026 (23:59), the following groups are free to sign up for the conference, if there are still spots available:

• Additional non-presenting chairs for panels
• Additional authors for accepted papers
• Individual senior or PhD NIG members

You can register by filling out the form “Registration form 22nd NIG conference (5 & 6 February 2026)” To do this sign in to COMS via this link: https://coms.app/nig26/welcome.html. You will find the form on the left side of the screen. Once filled out, you will receive a confirmation with a payment link (if applicable) from NIG, which has to be paid to complete registration.

The conference will be hosted at the Mgr. Sencie Instituut at KU Leuven. The address is:
Building number: 118-01
Erasmusplein 2
3000 Leuven
Belgium

Please find a preliminary conference program below. Each panel session will consist of about 4 presentations per panel.

Please be aware that, since the NIG conference has grown a lot in the past four years, we cannot take preferences for timeslots into account. Once the number of papers per panel is clear, the organization will allocate the timeslot(s) to your panel. 

Panel sessions will be organised into “streams” of similar topics as much as possible. This means that panels on a similar topic will follow after each other, spread out over both days.

Participants with an accepted abstract should upload their full papers to COMS by January 15th, 2026. Please note that this paper does not have to be finished/published yet – it is absolutely fine if it is still a work in progress.

NIG does not have any specifications on the formatting of the paper. You can always contact the panel chairs of your panel with regards to formatting specifications. You can find an overview of panel chairs and their contact information here.

For a complete overview of hotel suggestions in Leuven, please refer to this website. For some of the hotels listed on this website, we have noted down the estimated price per night, and the distance to the location of the conference (Mgr. Sencie Instituut, KU Leuven). You can find this information below.

Hotel Ladeuze — 2 minute walk — ± €95/night — website
Theater Hotel Leuven — 6 minute walk — ± €125/night — website
M-Street Art Lodging — 8 minute walk — ± €120/night — website
Hotel Industrie — 10 minute walk — ± €110/night — website
Hotel La Royale — 10 minute walk — ± €100/night — website
Hotel Professor  — 10 minute walk — ± €120/night — website
Hotel Mille Colonnes — 10 minute walk — ± €75/night — website
Hotel Malon — 11 minute walk — ± €100/night — website
ibis Leuven Centrum  — 13 minute walk — ± €100/night — website
Park Inn by Radisson Leuven — 13 minute walk — ± €120/night — website
Hotel The Shepherd — 14 minute walk — ± €110/night — website
ibis Budget — 14 minute walk — ± €70/night — website
Martins Klooster — 14 minute walk — ± €150/night — website
Irish College Leuven — 15 minute walk — ± €115/night — website
Novotel Leuven Centrum — 20 minute walk — ± €120/night — website
Begijnhof — 21 minute walk — ± €170/night — website