The European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) is a scholarly association that supports and encourages the training, research and cross-national cooperation of many thousands of academics and graduate students specialising in political science and all its sub-disciplines. ECPR membership is institutional rather than individual and, at its inception in 1970, comprised eight members (Bergen, Gothenburg, Essex, Leiden, Mannheim, Nuffield College (Oxford), Strathclyde and Paris (FNSP)). Membership has now grown to encompass more than 350 institutions throughout Europe, with associate members spread across the world.