As indicated during the annual assembly on September 3rd, the Central Bank Research Association is looking for a central bank or academic institution to host a new secretariat. The envisioned solution is that CEBRA pays for the staff but the host supplies the office space, IT equipment, and ideally management. At current, depending on the wage level in the hosting country, CEBRA can guarantee a 50-100% FTE position. In the long run, the secretariat might employ two FTE positions.

CEBRA is and intends to remain a Swiss Association based in the Canton of Basel City. We have a small secretariat at the University of Basel, but face high costs and capacity constraints. We therefore want to expand with an additional secretariat.

The envisioned tasks of the new secretariat include:

– to organize our annual meeting (which takes place a at a leading university: 2019 at Columbia University, 2020 at LSE, 2021 at MIT Sloan)

– to maintain our contacts with central banks and academia

– to organize smaller research meetings (around 5 1-day workshops per year) 

– to handle billing (our financing is based exclusively on contributions from central banks, IFI’s and other government organizations)

– to maintain the webpage and email databases

The execution of these tasks require excellent command of English and experience in organizing scientific events and networks. Preference will be given to central banks.

The legal arrangement would depend on both Swiss laws and the local laws in the hosting institution. Ideally, the hosting institution would employ the staff, and CEBRA would reimburse the hosting institution for the occurred expenses. Alternatively, CEBRA may be able to employ the person directly (if the host resides within the European Economic Area), or a local subsidiary could be formed.

CEBRA will feature the hosting institution on its webpage and in various communications. Depending on the arrangement, CEBRA is also open to involving (a) delegate(s) from the hosting institution in its executive committee on a long-term basis (for example, in the role of Secretary General or Vice President).

Interested parties are encouraged to contact CEBRA president Raphael Auer (Raphael.auer @ this domain .org) informally. At this stage, no commitment from the potential host is needed, we are only looking for indications of interest. Communications will be shared with the Regional Chapter Heads Luc Laeven (Africa, Europe, and Middle East), Frank Packer (Asia-Pacific), and Mark Wynne (Americas), but will be treated as confidential otherwise.

As we need to start organizing the 2021 annual meeting soon, also the process of reviewing incoming expressions of interest will commence soon. A first review of all received indications of interest will be conducted on 19.09.2020. As long as no hosting institution has been confirmed, also later expression of interests will be taken into full consideration.