NWO Research and Matchmaking

TU Delft and the Vereniging Deltametropool have created a consortium of academic and social partners to meet the need for a new model of spatial planning that will keep the Netherlands at the forefront of practice in territorial governance. The project aims to break through the current impasse in the governance of the Dutch territory, and provide a roadmap for the transition of planning institutions towards a new model.

The ‘new planning’ was conceptualised with the four main partners in July 2018. The project is aimed to be realized by the NWO (Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research) grant as well as co-financing from various partners. The NWO pre-proposal was submitted in September 2018 under the theme of resilient societies, which will be the guiding factor for undertaking the research. A consortium of stakeholders was set up and to kick start the project, we organised the Matchmaking event, an interactive session in November 2018. Along with this, one-to-one meetings with practitioners is being carried out to draw reactions and conclusions from them to continue the ongoing discussions. The eagerness of the practitioners towards the changing systems coping with the transitions in spatial planning, led us to initiate the corresponding route of the “The New Planning” project, called as the ‘new planning dialogue’. Alongside with the preparation for a bigger research project, we are organising the practitioner activities starting from 2019, rather than waiting till September 2020 for the NWO grant.

Developments 2018

Project comprehension – July 2018

Our early collaborations has already helped to shape the pre-proposal and we expect the participants to provide a more in-depth understanding of their perspectives and benefits we can gain from the domestic analysis and international comparisons. The outcome will be an agreed set of most urgent priorities shared by stakeholders; agreement about the main tasks and data needed from key partners, agreement to take part in analysis and simulation exercises; and a wider network of contacts who will engage in dialogue and dissemination.

Pre-proposal submission NWO/NWA/ ORC – September 2018

The pre-proposal submission for NOW/NWA/ORC grant has been submitted and this will help provide financial support for carrying out the research. Under this funding, a theoretically informed evaluation of the current model that considers the need for policy integration, functional territorialism, democratic legitimacy, proportionality and engagement with citizens will be carried out that will accelerate the societal change. You can download the pre-proposal here for further understanding.

Matchmaking Event – November 2018

As the first step towards the project, we arranged an interactive meeting with the project partners and stakeholders, the NWO Matchmaking event. This event was an open invitation for all the other organisations who can contribute to the planning system of the Netherlands.

One-to-one meetings with practitioners and reactions from practitioners – Sep 2018 – December 2018

After the event, we have had a lot of meetings and discussions about this project with most of the involved organisations who are directly related with the planning system of the Netherlands. The reactions and feedback was very useful to form a direction for the proposal and was put together to from conclusion. You can download this document here.

The Research Project

The New Planning – Empowering Resilient Societies (EmpiReS)

EmpiReS seeks to meet the critical challenges that we are facing today to ensure a more resilient society. Building resilience requires integrated actions between different stakeholders. However, the current spatial planning and implementation tools are no longer equipped to cope with the changing ways of society. Moreover, the ambitions of the NOVI (Nationale Omgevingsvisie) also needs critical understanding to be implemented.

EmpiRes aims to develop innovative approaches and critically evaluate the current spatial planning techniques to formulate a road map for the dissemination of new governance models. The main research questions is “How can a new model of (spatial) planning contribute to empowering resilient societies?” The academic research is developing under the funding umbrella of NWO.

Two main methodologies will be used.

— comparative analysis : a typology of planning approaches to the building of resilient societies from international cases.

— a co-creative process :  The New Planning Dialogue – involves (will involve) national, provincial and local governments as well as societal actors in the building of a new spatial planning model.

For more information about ‘The New Planning dialogue’ series, view here.