26th Annual EUPRERA Congress
At the Intersection between Academia and Practice in Public Relations and Strategic Communication
About the EUPRERA Annual Congress
The European Public Relations Education and Research Association (EUPRERA) is an autonomous organisation with over 550 members across 50 countries, with a vision of advancing academic research and knowledge in public relations and strategic communication. To achieve this vision, EUPRERA organises a highly regarded Annual Congress in collaboration with a prestigious European academic institution. The Annual Congress is an opportunity to exchange knowledge, explore innovative methods, and disseminate the latest research outcomes. The 26th Annual Congress will be hosted by the Department of Communication at the Faculty of Social Sciences of Lund University in the historical city of Lund, Sweden, between 24 and 27 September 2025.
The Organising Institution
Lund University was founded in 1666 and is one of the world’s top 100 universities. The University has approximately 45,000 students and 8,600 staff based in Lund, Helsingborg, Malmö, and Ljungbyhed. The University strives to understand, explain, and improve our world and the human condition.
The Faculty of Social Sciences at Lund University is one of Sweden’s leading units for research and education within the social and behavioural sciences. With activities in Lund and Helsingborg, a staff of over 700, and around 6,000 full-time equivalent students, the faculty is one of the largest at the University.
Lund University’s Department of Communication has more students, lecturers, and researchers than any other department in Sweden in the field of strategic communication and includes education and research in the closely related disciplines of media and communication studies and journalism. We are one of the largest units in Europe dedicated to strategic communication.
Contact
E-mail: congress2025 [at] euprera [dot] org (congress2025[at]euprera[dot]org)
The Congress Theme
The XXVI EUPRERA Congress invites academics, researchers, and professionals in the field of communication to an interdisciplinary discussion on public relations (PR) and strategic communication concerning the relationships between academia, practice, and impact.
The reality becomes increasingly fluid, complex, unpredictable, paradoxical, and full of tensions, making old theoretical models obsolete. Thus, there is a need for new knowledge to understand and manage new situations, expectations, and challenges organisations face. Integrating academia and practice is critical for addressing and dealing with complex, “wicked problems” and grand societal challenges. Collaboration between academia and practice may also be a solution to address the need for alternative or improved approaches to organising, leading, and communicating. However, there is also a need to reflect and elaborate on our “trick of the trade” – the norms and understanding of how research should be conducted. By opening up for closer cooperation with practice and practitioners, new possibilities and paths for knowledge production are created. However, such collaboration is not without difficulties. A strong dualism differentiates practitioners from researchers, means from ends, and thought from actions. This dualism cements the distance between practice and research, reducing the possibilities for impact and change.
Further, knowledge co-production needs facilitation and does not happen by itself. Several differences, such as time horizons, terms and concepts, and power and status, may hinder or make the co-production of new knowledge problematic. The fundamental problem may be the various understandings of ontology and epistemology. It is, therefore, essential for researchers and practitioners in public relations and strategic communication to reflect on different aspects and perspectives on the relationships between academia, practice, and impact.
The organisers of the EUPRERA congress in Lund welcome theoretical, empirical, and applied research on the congress theme and are looking forward to stimulating discussions in different thematic areas and an additional open track. Interested authors should submit short-length or full-length papers or panel proposals in one of the track options. Abstract submissions will not be reviewed and will be automatically disqualified.