Territorial Science Echo

The idea of the Territorial Science Echo was developed in the framework of the INTERREG Project UniGR-Center for Border Studies in the year 2018. The UniGR-CBS is a cross-border network of about 80 scientists of six member universities of the Greater Region that work on 'borders', their meanings and challenges. The Territorial Science Echo fosters the researchers' of the Center for Borders Studies of the University of the Greater Region (UniGR-CBS) transfer of innovative knowledge in the field of spatial planning to politics, public administration and society. It particularly concerns the feed from current scientific results to the development process of the regional development concept of the Greater Region (REKGR/SDTGR).

The UniGR researchers' expertise contributes to the interconnectedness with the SDTGR/REKGR Interreg project. Cross-border regions are particularly suitable to establish labs for comparative approaches and integrated strategies of spatial planning. These learning processes of spatial planning and spatial development facilitate to effectively interlock research answers and changing framework conditions with societal needs. Thus, innovative research results are directly made available for planning practice. This fosters the cross-border governance in the field of spatial planning and establishes a competitive basis.

Additionally, the scientific discourses are to made available for the SDTGR/REKGR. For this purpose, five synthetic reports were developed in the fields "demography and migration", "mobility, transport infrastructures and public transport", "employment and economic development", "energy" and "governance and external relations of the Greater Region". These thematic focuses were coordinated with the SDTGR/REKGR project beforehand and are based on current research results of the UniGR-CBS researchers. Additionally, they identify challenges of the Greater Region.

The reports of the thematic fields were written in teams of authors, consisting of researchers from all six partner universities of the UniGR. The aim was to report their results in a brief, understandable and consise format (approximately 10 pages per topic). A joint workshop of the UniGR-CBS researchers and the scientific council of the SDTGR/REKGR as well as stakeholders of the Greater Region was held in November 2018. It served as a place to reflect on the spatial development of the Greater Region from a scientific perspective.

The newly started dialogue between the UniGR-CBS researchers and stakeholders of the Greater Region is tested in the SDTGR/REKGR project and shall be maintained for the coping sustainably with future tasks of spatial planning in the long run. In this context it is planned to continue the Territorial Science Echo also after the end of the Interreg funding in the framework of the UniGR-CBS.