Welcome to the fifth electronic ESPON 2013 Newsletter. It offers information on the latest developments of the ESPON Programme.

At the end of the first year of the ESPON 2013 Programme, Luxembourg had the pleasure of a visit by General Director Dirk Ahner of the European Commission DG Regio. During the visit the implementation of the ESPON 2013 Programme was discussed and Mr. Ahner expressed recognition on the efforts made by ESPON. He invited for a closer cooperation with DG Regio on analytical activities and studies in order to maximise complementarity and ensure exchange and mutual technical support. Together with the Luxembourg Minister of the Interior and for Spatial Development, Jean-Marie Halsdorf, the necessity of a longer term perspective on a European Observatory for Territorial Development and Cohesion, established in cooperation between the European Commission and Member States, was addressed.

2009 will in many ways be an important second year for the ESPON 2013 Programme. The planning includes several new applied research projects, in total 8-10, to be launched as call for proposals and later in the year starting their implementation. The ongoing applied research projects will begin delivering the first results during 2009 in Inception and Interim Reports, and even the first Final Report will arrive.

The new project type with stakeholder involvement, the Targeted Analysis, are envisaged to have a second boost in terms of a call for expression of interest opting for the selection of up to 10 additional project ideas by the Monitoring Committee. Once selected, project specifications developed together with the stakeholders involved will be the base for an open call for proposals from groups of analytical experts.

The Scientific Platform shall be further enriched by 4 projects on scientific tools. A Project on Territorial Indicators and Indices is in the planning complementing the work in progress on the ESPON 2013 Database and preparing for the envisaged future project on Territorial Monitoring.

The ESPON Contact Points consisting of one contact in all 31 countries involved in ESPON should also start their transnational networking activities in support of the capitalisation of ESPON results at transnational level.

Audit of the management and control system set up for the implementation the ESPON 2013 Programme and projects is scheduled for late February and might influence the exact timing of the planned activities.

Among the ESPON events in preparation so far are an open ESPON Seminar on 2-3 June 2009 in Prague and an ESPON Workshop in spring on "Innovative visualisation and cartographic illustration". The idea of the Workshop is to present and discuss options for innovative cartographic languages using cutting-edge computer tools available today. The outcome of the workshop might inspire visualisation and cartographic illustrations within the ESPON 2013 Programme. This workshop will be announced on the ESPON website and it should contribute to the European Year 2009 of Creativity & Innovation.

Wishing you a successful 2009, full of Creativity and Innovation!
 

Peter Mehlbye
Director ESPON Coordination Unit

The ESPON projects cover a wide range of research areas in order to support policy development related to territorial development and cohesion. The focus is on territorial structures, trends, perspectives and impacts of sector policies. More

A Call for Expression of Interest for the Knowledge Support System is open. The Call aims at enlarging the existing pool of experts in the field of territorial research and analysis, in particular in themes such as “Land Use”, “Accessibility”, “Innovation” and “Globalisation”. The deadline is 12 February 2009. More 

Three calls for tenders are currently open: (1) Capitalisation Strategy, (2) Corporate Identity and Lay-out, (3) Webservice and IT Solutions. The deadline is 10 February 2009. More 

This month, ESPON presents trends in population development, namely on population growth in the EU and its neighbourhood. Demographic development will have a major influence on future territorial development in Europe. Human resources have a significant impact on the economic development of regions and cities. It is therefore a key concern for policy makers to attract and develop a highly skilled labour force in their regions and cities. In this respect, migration and imbalance between EU Member States and neighbouring countries represent important opportunities as well as challenges. The diversity of population growth indicates the areas around the EU where one can expect a high level of interest for migrating to the EU. More 

The last MC Meeting held under the French Presidency took place in Bordeaux on 8-9 December 2008. The Monitoring Committee took a number of decisions, including on the launch of the next round of Calls in spring 2009, the Capitalisation Plan 2009, the Communication Plan 2009, on issues related to Programme implementation, the budget and financial issues. The next ESPON Monitoring Committee meeting will take place in Bruxelles on 17 March 2009.

A second meeting of ESPON Contact Points took place in France on 12 December 2008. Thirty-three participants from 25 Member and Partner States attended. Among the discussions was the review of ECP activities at national/regional level, the scoping of projects envisaged capiltalising on ESPON results in the transnational context and the launch of the First Call for Proposals for Transnational Activities by the ECP Network foreseen for spring 2009.

ESPON has recently published the first issue of the “Territorial Observation”. This publication provides information on important new evidence related to dynamics of population development and migration in Europe and its regions. These dynamics have an influence on territorial cohesion and regional competitiveness and important changes have occurred for many European regions during the last 5 – 6 years. More

The ESPON Coordination Unit is looking for a trainee for a period of 5 months to join our international team.

The ESPON Partner Café is an opportunity to find partners for setting up Transnational Project Groups that can submit proposals for ESPON projects. 37 institutions from 16 European countries have already taken the opportunity to be included in the overview compiled by ESPON. The update overview is available here.

On 22 January 2009 the ESPON Coordination Unit, in cooperation with the URBACT II Secretariat, is organizing in Bruxelles a 1st Level Financial Control Meeting for national authorities responsible for the implementation of controls. At the meeting information on the implementation of the First Level Control in the new programming period will be given, the control forms will be introduced and there will be the opportunity to raise questions relating the procedure.

A Seminar on management and administration of projects will be organised on 31 March 2009 for Lead and Project Partners of approved projects under the second round of Calls launched in August 2008. Information about e.g. eligibility rules, programme manual, subsidy contract, reporting and monitoring procedures will be given, as well as information about administrative, legal and practical matters of relevance concerning project coordination and management.

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