The Center for Aging and Policy Studies (CAPS) and the Center for Policy Research (CPR) will host a conference on June 8 and 9, 2026 at Syracuse University to advance knowledge on the connections between policies and population health in a changing U.S. context. In conjunction with the CAPS-CPR conference, The Milbank Quarterly will publish a special issue in 2027. Authors intending to submit a paper to The Milbank Quarterly special issue are strongly encouraged to submit an abstract of the paper by January 15, 2026 for presentation at the CAPS-CPR conference.

The conference and special issue seek empirical, methodological, and theoretical contributions on the topic. Of particular interest are papers that link changes and variation in policy contexts to health outcomes, identify mechanisms linking policies to outcomes, or propose new ways to measure and conceptualize policy contexts for health research.

Up to 15 papers will be selected for the conference. The goal of the conference is to significantly strengthen each paper before its submission to the special issue. The first author of each paper will be a 2026 CAPS-CPR Conference Fellow and receive (1) reimbursement of travel expenses up to $1500, (2) feedback and suggestions from an assigned discussant and other conference fellows, and (3) a detailed written review by a guest editor of the special issue (Pinka Chatterji, Shannon M. Monnat, and Jennifer Karas Montez). Presentation at the conference is not a requirement for submitting a paper to the special issue.

Application instructions and more information can be found here:https://drive.google.com/file/d/1h4ncQILPsLtSyCGeQDBl81Tan3F1DeKZ/view