PhD Community

Shaping the future of experimental research 

Join the PhD Community & Sign up to the events

The IGL PhD community aims to lower the barriers to experimental research by bringing together early-career researchers looking to enhance their skills in experimental research and creating spaces for skill-building, peer exchange and direct mentorship.

By offering structured workshops, peer exchange, one-on-one mentoring opportunities, and opportunities to practice key academic skills, this initiative helps cultivate the next generation of experimental researchers. It also contributes to a more diverse and connected research field by engaging students across institutions, disciplines, and backgrounds.

The main activity of the PhD Community will be a workshop series led and curated by PhD students and early-career researchers.

The goal is to create a space for early-stage researchers to learn directly from field experiment scholars about the practical, sometimes invisible, decisions that shape experimental research in organisations and management, while getting feedback from both peers and senior scholars. 

The workshop series will be divided into two main session types:

• Behind-the-Scenes -Talks by senior researchers, focused on the practical, sometimes invisible, decisions that shape experimental research in organizations and management.These sessions follow the rough timeline of a typical journal publication process for field experiments, starting with experimental design and pre-registration, then moving toward implementation, recruitment, funding, revision, and publishing. Sessions will run every other month, with each session focused on a concrete stage of the research process. 

• Idea Pitch Sessions – Spaces for PhD students to present early-stage research ideas and trial designs, and receive feedback from both peers and senior researchers. These sessions are inspired by the CFXS idea pitch sessions, and will run roughly every other month depending on interest.

• Job Market Practice Sessions – Supportive, low-stakes opportunities for PhD candidates preparing to enter the academic job market to practice presenting their research and receive constructive feedback. These sessions provide a mock environment for job market talks, helping candidates refine their presentation, positioning, and ability to communicate their research. They also offer an opportunity for participants who are not presenting to develop their skills in giving thoughtful and constructive academic feedback. Sessions will involve members of the PhD Community as well as, where appropriate, junior faculty and researchers who have recently been on the job market.

Workshop series schedule

Behind the Scenes

📅June 12, 2026 – 3:00-4:00 pm GMT / 10:00-11:00 am EST –
Paper Presentation

📌 Topic: Job Market Debriefs – the academic job market from the inside

👤 Discussants: Wajeeha Ahmad (Stanford University), Fabrizio Dell’Acqua (Harvard University)

📅May 15, 2026 – 3:00-4:00 pm GMT / 10:00-11:00 am EST –
Paper Presentation

📌 Topic: “Learning to Quit? A Multi-Year, Multi-Site Field Experiment with Innovation-Driven Entrepreneurs”. Link to paper.

👤 Discussants: Yael Hochberg – Head of the Entrepreneurship Initiative and the Liu Idea Lab for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Rice University

📅January 9, 2026 – 2:00-3:00 pm GMT / 9:00-10:00 am EST –
Field Implementation and Logistics

📌 Topic: Field Implementation and Logistics

👤 Discussants: Raffaella Sadun- Charles E. Wilson Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School

📅November 11, 2025 – 2:00-3:00 pm GMT / 9:00-10:00 am EST –
Implementation

📌 Topic: Implementation

👤 Discussants: Elena Novelli – Professor of Strategy, Bayes Business School

📅September 16, 2025 – 2:00-3:00 pm BST / 9:00-10:00 am EST –
Pre-registration and Trial Design

📌 Topic: Pre-registration and Trial Design

👤 Discussants: David McKenzie –  Lead Economist, World Bank; Amisha Miller – Assistant Professor, NYU Stern.

Pitch the Idea

How it works:

We invite PhD students to share their research ideas or trial designs and receive feedback from peers and senior researchers. Each pitch is a 5-minute presentation, followed by 5 minutes of feedback. These quarterly sessions are designed to be a supportive space to test ideas, sharpen research designs, and get useful, targeted input.

1. Expression of interest
3–4 weeks before each session, interested students submit an Expression of Interest form (see button below with instructions). If there are more pitches than slots, we prioritise time-sensitive projects, while others get priority in the next round.

2. Upload your canvas (optional)
If you are in the design phase, we recommend filling-in the Strategy Experiment Canvas linked here and uploading it through the form below. This is a tool to assist participants in organising their ideas, and not required for participation in a pitch session. 

Past Sessions:

📅March 12, 2026 – 3:00-4:00 pm GMT / 10:00-11:00 am EST – 👤 Discussants: Laura Rosendahl Huber – Associate Professor at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University.

📅December 1, 2025 – 3:00-4:00 pm GMT / 10:00-11:00 am EST – 👤 Discussants: Elena Novelli – Professor of Strategy at Bayes Business School.

📅September 29, 2025 – 2:00-3:00 pm BST / 9:00-10:00 am EST – 👤 Discussants: Solène Delecourt- Assistant Professor, Berkeley Haas; Stefan Dimitriadis – Assistant Professor, University of Toronto.