URBAN AND REGIONAL STUDIES INSTITUTE (URSI) RESEARCH REPORT A SELF-EVALUATION

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URBAN AND REGIONAL STUDIES INSTITUTE (URSI)

RESEARCH REPORT 2000-2006

A SELF-EVALUATION

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URBAN AND REGIONAL STUDIES INSTITUTE (URSI)

RESEARCH REPORT 2000-2006

A SELF-EVALUATION

Research Programme

Regional studies of population, economy and culture, planning and policy

making

sub-programmes

1. Explaining spatial economic change

2. Determinants of population dynamics

3. Planning for environmental quality

4. Making

places

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Faculty of Spatial Sciences / Faculteit der Ruimtelijke Wetenschappen (FRW) Rijksuniversiteit Groningen PO Box 800 9700 AV Groningen The Netherlands Tel +31-50-363 3898 Fax +31-50-363 3901

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PREFACE... ABBREVIATIONS...VIII REPORTS REFERRED TO: ...VIII

PART A URBAN AND REGIONAL STUDIES INSTITUTE (URSI) ...1

INTRODUCTION...1

A1 MISSION STATEMENT 2000-2006...5

A2 LEADERSHIP...6

A3 STRATEGY AND POLICY...8

A4 RESEARCHERS AND OTHER PERSONNEL...12

A5 RESOURCES, FUNDING AND FACILITIES...17

A6 PROCESSES IN RESEARCH, INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL COLLABORATIONS...19

A7 ACADEMIC REPUTATION...20

A8 INTERNAL EVALUATION...20

A9 EXTERNAL VALIDATION...21

A10 OVERVIEW OF THE RESULTS...22

A11 ANALYSIS, PERSPECTIVES AND EXPECTATIONS...24

PART B RESEARCH PROGRAMME...27

B1 EXPLAINING SPATIAL-ECONOMIC CHANGE...29

B1.1 Mission, strategy and policy ...29

B1.2 Leadership ...33

B1.3 Processes in research, internal and external collaborations ...34

B1.4 Academic reputation...35

B1.5 Internal evaluation ...37

B1.6 External validation...37

B1.7 Researchers and other personnel...38

B1.8 Resources, funding and facilities ...41

B1.9 Overview of the results...41

B1.10 Analysis, perspectives and expectations ...42

B2 DETERMINANTS OF POPULATION DYNAMICS...45

B2.3 Processes in research, internal and external collaboration...49

B3 PLANNING FOR ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY...59

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APPENDIX B1: PUBLICATIONS EXPLAINING SPATIAL ECONOMIC CHANGE...85

Academic Publications ...85

Professional Publications...93

APPENDIX B2: PUBLICATIONS DETERMINANTS OF POPULATION DYNAMICS...109

APPENDIX B3: PUBLICATIONS PLANNING FOR ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY...121

APPENDIX B4: PUBLICATIONS MAKING PLACES...141

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Faculty of Spatial Sciences of the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen in improving her research programmes. Now after 6 years it is time to take stock again.

Although the research programmes did not change in name –one programme was added-, the research environment changed significantly. The Bachelor-Master system is now in place with two Bachelors, eight Masters of which three are English language taught and a graduate school. The number of students and PhD candidates increased to respectively 850 and 50, though staff numbers lag behind. The 2003 decision to concentrate all URSI (the Urban and Regional Studies Institute) researchers in Nethur (Netherlands Graduate School on Urban and Regional Research) had however the greatest impact by far. This move resulted in a united research community within the faculty and the (ongoing) development of a faculty-wide research programme. Further input came from the Faculty Board that established a research nucleus and created two tenure track positions. Extra scholarships attracted more (inter)national PhD candidates and the number of externally funded projects is on the increase. The emphasis is on scientific research, even though the Faculty regards society-oriented research an organic part of her mission and vital for a solid society-based scientific community in the field of Spatial Sciences.

Although the contours of a faculty-wide research programme become more visible by the time, the Faculty Board has decided to prepare self evaluation reports for 4 research sub-programmes as this reflects present reality closer. The self-evaluations pertain to the following research programmes:

1. Explaining spatial economic change 2. Determinants of population dynamics 3. Planning for environmental quality 4. Making places.

The complete self-evaluation report has been discussed extensively in the URSI Board, the Departments, the Faculty Advisory Board, was sent for final comments to the Scientific Advisory Board of the RUG and has been approved by the Faculty Board. Preparing a self-evaluation report fixes an ongoing process in time. It is a good opportunity to reflect on ‘where we are’, where we ‘did come from’ and where we are ‘heading for’. At the same time it is a chosen moment to invite comments and suggestions to improve our efforts. We do hope that this report will fulfil its intended role by presenting a concise, accurate and transparent document to the Review Committee. On behalf of the Faculty Board I extend my sincere thanks to all who have contributed to this report, especially the supporting staff. A particular word of thanks for Prof. Inge Hutter who as the Faculty’s Board member in charge of research affairs, was responsible for the writing and final editing of the report.

Prof. Gerard Linden, Dean

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AESOP Association of European Schools of Planning

AIO Assistent-in-Opleiding: PhD researcher employed by RUG, direct or contract funding

CDS Centre for Development Studies, RUG

CERES Research School for Resource Studies for Development EDSD European Doctoral School for Demography

ERSA European Regional Science Association

FRW Faculteit Ruimtelijke Wetenschappen / Faculty of Spatial Sciences IDPAD Indo-Dutch Programme on Alternatives in Development, NWO KNAW Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences

MAGW Maatschappij en GedragsWetenschappen / Social Sciences, NWO Nethur Netherlands Graduate School on Urban and Regional Research NEURUS Network for European and U.S. Regional and Urban Studies NvD Netherlands Demographic Society

NWO Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research

OIO Onderzoeker-in-Opleiding; PhD researcher employed by RUG, research funding

RUG Rijksuniversiteit Groningen / University of Groningen

SOM Joint Research School of the Faculties of Management and Organization and Economics RUG

URSI Urban and Regional Studies Institute

WOTRO WOTRO Science for Global Development, NWO

Reports referred to:

FRW Strategic Plan 2004-2010

FRW Application for accreditation Research Master in Regional Studies, 2004 FRW Internationalization Report, 2006

FRW Graduate School Spatial Sciences Report, 2005 Nethur Application for reaccreditation, 2004

RUG Strategic Plan 2004-2010 URSI Annual Reports 2000-2006

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PART A URBAN AND REGIONAL STUDIES INSTITUTE (URSI)

INTRODUCTION

The University of Groningen (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, RUG) was founded in 1614 and is a classical broadly based university, with about 23,000 students. The Faculty of Spatial Sciences (FRW) is one of the 10 faculties of the RUG and covers 3 scientific disciplines: human geography, demography and spatial planning. The Faculty Board is the ultimate body responsible for the political, financial and personnel aspects regarding research. Teaching and research is organized in 4 Departments (Basiseenheden), i.e.

1. Economic Geography (Head: Prof. P.H. Pellenbarg) 2. Demography (Head: Prof. I. Hutter)

3. Spatial Planning (Acting Head: Dr P. Ike) 4. Cultural Geography (Head: Prof. P.P.P. Huigen) The faculty has about 850 students.

The faculty’s research programme “Regional studies of population, economy and culture, planning and policy-making” is coordinated by the Urban and Regional Studies Institute (URSI). The programme is further divided into 4 sub-programmes, originating from the four departments:

1. Explaining spatial-economic change 2. Determinants of population dynamics 3. Planning for environmental quality

4. Making places, emerged from sub-programme 3, since 2005.

URSI was established in 1999 building upon existing research in the 4 departments. The foundation of URSI was a result of the need felt to coordinate and focus existing research in the Faculty. The key feature of URSI’s research the study of space (be it a region, city, country or rural area) from the multidisciplinary perspective of geography, demography and spatial planning. URSI’s main objective is to produce high quality scientific research, aimed at peers, to increase academic knowledge; and to disseminate this research to policymakers, NGOs and the general public, thus enhancing evidence-based interventions and policymaking. In addition, capacity building of young researchers is a major objective (see A1. Mission Statement).

In the period under review, the Faculty formulated several policies and strategies in the field of research, as well as in teaching and the organization of the faculty.

Developments in the Faculty since 2000

The student population increased from 500 in 2000 to 850 in 2006, without a proportional increase in staff. The teaching programme offered in 2000 changed completely with the introduction of the Bachelor-Master system. The FRW now offers 2 Bachelor’s degree programmes1, 6 one-year Master’s programmes2, a two-year Research Master3 and a

1_{Social Geography and Spatial Planning, and Environmental and Infrastructure Planning.} 2

Cultural Geography, Economic Geography, Real Estate, Population Studies, Spatial Planning, and Environmental and Infrastructure Planning.

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year Educational Master. The graduate school was established in 2006 (see FRW Graduate School Report, 2006). Academic teaching and research are two sides of a coin and thus the focal point of the Faculty’s efforts and attention. The Research Master, the Master’s degree in Population Studies and the Master’s degree in Environmental and Infrastructure Planning (EIP) are taught in English. The graduate school is also English-language based.

Internationalization, both in research and teaching, has been a major focus in the period under review. FRW is one of the most internationally oriented faculties within the university, as indicated by a high number of Bachelor’s students participating in European and USA exchange programmes; by the participation of international students in the Master’s degree in Population Studies and Environmental and Infrastructure Planning; Master’s students and excellent Bachelor students (Challenge programme4) conducting their thesis research abroad; and researchers conducting international research and being involved in international research projects. There are strong working relationships with a number of foreign universities in the field of teaching5 while research ties are on the increase6 (see FRW Internationalization Report, 2006)

In addition to this international orientation, FRW always has been strongly embedded within the region of the Northern Netherlands. From the FRW Strategic Plan 2004-2010:

FRW believes it has a special responsibility for the cultural, social, economic and above all spatial development of its own region (p. 2).

Research on regional development, for example on the labour market, firm locations, planning of the zone around highway A7, is conducted by researchers in particular from the Departments of Economic and Cultural Geography, and Spatial Planning.

Developments in URSI since 2000

At the time of the former self-evaluation (2000; report 2001), researchers of the faculty still participated in two research schools. Economic geographers and demographers participated in the local Research School SOM (http://som.rug.nl) with researchers of the Faculties of Economics and Management and Organization of the RUG. Spatial planners and cultural geographers participated in the national research school on urban and regional research, Nethur (Netherlands Graduate School on Urban and Regional Research; www.nethur.nl). In 2003, demographers and economic geographers left SOM and became fellows of Nethur. This move resulted in a united research community within the faculty and was a boost for the development of a faculty-broad research programme. It also meant a strengthening of the URSI input in Nethur. As stated in the FRW Strategic Plan 2004-2010:

4_{A special programme for talented students and directed at the Research Master}

5_{Double degree programmes with Institut Technologik Bandung, University of Oldenburg,}

6_{For example, participation in the European Doctoral School for Demographic Research, under the auspices of the} European Association of Population Studies (EAPS); network Neurus; ERSA (European Regional Scientists Associa-tion); several universities in UK.

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Because ….. FRW researchers are now members through URSI of a single national research school (Nethur), the form and content of research is also open to discussion. The emphasis is on possibilities for strengthening research and boosting quality through further linkage within the FRW. The focus will be on linkage based on the existing strengths and expertise of the departments (p. 2).

Nethur was reaccredited in 2006 for a period of 6 years. PhD training programmes take place also within Nethur. Lecturers from different sister institutes, including URSI, provide modules. The Nethur PhD training programme was evaluated in 2003 and is not discussed here as such. Through Nethur, URSI researchers who specialize in developing countries participate in the national Research School for Resource Studies for Development CERES (http://ceres.fss.uu.nl).

To enhance existing research and teaching related to developing countries, at that time within the Departments of Demography and Planning in particular, and to broaden research collaborations with other RUG faculties, in 2004 FRW welcomed the Centre for Development Studies (CDS; Director: Prof. P.P.S. Ho). CDS, previously situated in the Faculty of Economics, is ‘owned’ by all 10 faculties of the University of Groningen and thus is not evaluated here. Researchers focussing on developing countries participate and meet within CDS. URSI researchers participate especially in the two CDS focal research groups “Institutions, conflicting claim and property rights” and “Participatory approaches in lifelong learning and reproductive health”. In addition to being the Director of CDS, Ho also is Professor of International Development at FRW for 0.6 fte.

Since joining Nethur in 2003, URSI’s objective has been to develop from a research institute where research is traditionally conducted within the boundaries of departments, into a research institute where researchers from different departments conduct research together within certain research themes. That is, researchers share their knowledge, experience and expertise. This means collaboration and exchange without losing disciplinary specializations. As the FRW Strategic Plan states:

In the present model, departments play a much more prominent role than research themes… The faculty explicitly aims at greater coherence in its research themes and seeks research synergy by encouraging cross-fertilization and cooperation between researchers from different departments with different research disciplinary backgrounds, both within the faculty and within Nethur

(FRW Strategic Plan 2004-2010, p.13; and 11).

Examples of collaborations and cross-fertilization in the period under review include the research themes of

- firm demography, since 1999, which combines expertise from the disciplines of economic geography and demography (first within SOM, then Nethur);

- heritage planning and identities bringing together research expertise from the discipline of planning and cultural geography (within Nethur).

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There is noticeably more dynamism, as indicated by:

- new joint research projects, usually with young researchers, have recently been developed, for example on regional development and neighbourhood research (planning, economic, cultural geography), evolutionary economics and entrepreneurship (economic geography, demography), cultural meaning of people and places (cultural geography and social demography), real estate (economic geography, spatial planning), urban governance and poverty (spatial planning and researchers from all departments). Joint projects have the potential to become new research themes.

- joint supervision of PhDs (for example Bentinck 2000; Terluin, 2001; Koster 2006; Haandrikman since 2005; Dias and Zeelenberg since 2006) and joint publications (for example Van der Aa and Ashworth, 2002, 2006; joint book publication on the Northern Netherlands (Pellenbarg ed. forthcoming 2007; Ashworth, Groote and Haartsen, forthcoming 2007).

- joint proposal writing (for example Hutter, Van Wissen, Groote and Haandrikman). - discussions and reflections on articles-in-progress.

- a future joint collaboration, in Research Master and PhD programme, of FRW and CDS, with Uppsala University (Ho, Hutter).

The Faculty Board follows a pro-active policy in acquiring funding for PhD fellowships from the RUG, for example Ubbo Emmius, Erik Bleumink and Bernoulli fellowships; in 2005 a research nucleus7 was appointed, consisting of Dr Justin Beaumont plus two PhD

researchers, within the tenure track system.

Dr Beaumont is developing a research programme on ‘Urban governance, social justice, poverty and faith-based-organizations’ in cooperation with researchers from different departments. FRW formulated another tenure track path for a promising young scientist, Dr Bettina van Hoven, starting in January 2007. Here too researchers from different departments will participate in her theme ‘Belonging and identities’.

In sum, the Faculty’s research Institute URSI changed character after the unification of the researchers of the Faculty in 2003. The existing research programmes were accommodated within one framework and a new orientation emerged through direct efforts of URSI to stimulate interdepartmental exchange and cooperation.

The establishment of the Challenge programme (for excellent students), the accreditation of the Research Master in 2004, the start of the graduate school in 2006, all contribute to a faculty-wide research effort. Appointing two tenure track staff members, one as a research nucleus and one on an individual basis, aims at strengthening this newfound communal base.

7_{Research nuclei are appointed by the RUG to teaching oriented faculties to stimulate and contribute to the} development of a research orientation.

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A1 MISSION STATEMENT 2000-2006

The foundation of URSI was a result of the need felt to coordinate and focus existing research in the Faculty. At time of establishment in 1999, URSI’s mission was:

• to coordinate and perform research on urban and regional problems.

• to focus research on the testing, application and communication of knowledge in real-world settings.

• to promote research activities, both within and outside the Faculty of Spatial Sciences.

• to foster ties with research institutes and other relevant organizations outside the University of Groningen.

The first two objectives follow the institute’s research philosophy as described below. The last two mission objectives relate more to organizational issues. Strategies, policies and activities developed to meet these last two objectives are described in A3.

In 2003, the joint participation of URSI researchers in Nethur (see Introduction) facilitated the objective to achieve greater coherence in and synergy between research sub-programmes by encouraging cross-fertilization and cooperation between researchers from different departments with different disciplinary backgrounds within the faculty. In other words, the aim is for more collaboration and exchange, but without losing disciplinary specializations.

The introduction of the Bachelor-Master structure and the establishment of the Research Master in Regional Studies in 2004 additionally highlighted the objectives of more integration of research and teaching activities.

URSI’s mission thus became

- to conduct high quality scientific research on urban and regional problems, from a multidisciplinary perspective (economic and cultural geography, demography, planning),

o aiming at peers and thus increasing the body of academic knowledge on urban and regional problems, and

o to disseminate this scientific research to policy makers, NGOs and the general public, thus providing an evidence-base for policymaking and interventions.

- to enhance capacity-building in the scientific field of urban and regional issues, from this multidisciplinary perspective.

The URSI mission is an umbrella mission for the four sub-programmes (see Part B), each of them with an own, particular emphasis.

URSI’s main research objective being the study of regions, the functioning of regions and the development pattern of regions over time is viewed as the result of a complex dynamic interaction process between cultural, economic and demographic forces in spaces and places. This process takes place in an environmental setting that is partly of natural origin and partly shaped by the actors in this process: people, firms, governmental and non-governmental organizations. The development of regions is an evolutionary process in which path dependency and the function of the region in a network of regions

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is of crucial importance. Furthermore, the social, physical, institutional and cultural infrastructure plays an important role. Regions form the appropriate spatial unit for the analysis of society as they encompass the majority of daily movements of persons and goods as well as social, cultural and economic relations. Knowledge of both the spatial organization of spaces and places within regions, and the economic, cultural and demographic interaction between regions is crucial for understanding the roles of regions. This will provide insights into the functioning of society and identify possibilities for adequate policy interventions.

The essential idea is the critical analysis of space and place as the basis for action and intervention in regions. This includes:

- Critical analysis – by means of quantitative and qualitative research methods,

based on sound theoretical frameworks, focussing on unravelling the intricate relationships within and between regions and the associated opportunities for informed intervention.

- Space – connoting locational relationships, and competing claims over locations; and the impacts and interrelationship of the sectoral on the spatial and vice versa. This has very practical implications for how economies and their infrastructures function; how communities achieve cohesion; environmental capacity and ecological impact; and cultural identity.

- Place – a focus on outcomes, quality, form, and identity as experienced and perceived by occupants, permanent or transient;

- Action or intervention – a deliberate process focussing on what could and should

be done, thereby inherently a process concerned with ethics and values as well as facts – an active process, which includes the possibility of deliberate inaction. It also implies management skills appropriate to securing results.

A2 LEADERSHIP

Figure A1 depicts the organizational structure of research within the Faculty of Spatial Sciences and URSI. The Faculty Board (Dean, teaching: Prof. G. Linden; Vice-dean, research: Prof. I. Hutter; Financial and Personnel Manager: Mrs. G. Groen) is the ultimate body responsible for the political, financial and personnel aspects regarding research, teaching and management.

In the period under assessment (2000-2006), within the Board the following persons have been responsible for research:

- 2000 – September 2000 Prof. F.J. Willekens - September 2000 –2002 Prof. H. Voogd - September 2002 – 2005 Prof. J. Van Dijk - September 2005- now Prof. I. Hutter

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Figure A1. Organization of research within FRW and URSI

Faculty Board

-Dean, Education (Linden) -Vice-dean, Research (Hutter) -Finances/personnel (Groen)

FRW

URSI URSI Board

- Hutter (Director) - Pellenbarg, Van Dijk, - Van Wissen - Voogd, De Roo, Ho - Huigen, Strijker

Research programme Regional Studies of Population, Economy and Culture, Spatial Planning and Policy making

Explaining socio-economic change Determinants of population dynamics Making places Planning for environmental quality N ethur CDS URSI researchers - Nethur-fellows - Associate fellows - PhD researchers - Research Master students (>2006 Graduate School)

Note: for a description of CDS and Nethur, see Introduction

Since September 2000, the responsible Board Member for research is also the Director of URSI. In a small organization such as FRW, with short lines of communication, this has proved to be a suitable way of working. The Board Member responsible for Research / Director URSI coordinates URSI activities and the PhD programme (until September 2006 when the Graduate School started), monitors output, and coordinates the research direction and research policies. URSI is supported by an Office Manager (Mrs M. Harder) who keeps the records on publications (OZIS system), coordinates the URSI website, maintains contact with Nethur, etc.

The Faculty Board makes decisions on strategic research matters in close consultation with the URSI Board. The communication is flexible and informal. Feedback is also provided to the Board from the bi-monthly URSI PhD meetings.

URSI has an advisory URSI Board consisting of all professors of the faculty with a research task, who meet once every two months or whenever there is a need to gather on a specific issue. The URSI Board deals with:

- advice and consultation regarding research policy matters.

- consultation regarding the scientific quality of projects. For example, PhD proposals must be approved by two URSI Board members before they are accepted as URSI PhD projects.

- advice on research in general. For example, publications registered annually in the OZIS system are presented and discussed in one of the URSI PhD conferences, and compared to output in preceding years.

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Researchers within URSI are:

o Nethur fellows who participate in the national Graduate School Nethur. For fellows, at least 40 per cent of their working time is allocated to research.

o Associate fellows who do not participate in Nethur, with a minor part of their activities (10 per cent) allocated to research. FRW’s aim is to provide research time to all staff members, even when people do not participate in Nethur. Output of the associate fellows can sometimes be less embedded within existing research themes. o PhD researchers, who participate within the national Graduate School Nethur and,

since September 2006, the local Graduate School of Spatial Sciences, including AIOs (direct funding and contract funding), OIOs (research funds such as NWO and KNAW) and PhD fellows;

o Since September 2004, students of the Research Master in Regional Studies; since September 2006 part of the local Graduate School of Spatial Sciences.

Since September 2004, URSI has its own Research Master in Regional Studies, accredited for the period 2004-2010 by the NVAO. Since September 2006, the Faculty’s own Graduate School of Spatial Sciences (Director: Prof. L.J.G. van Wissen), includes both the PhD training and the Research Master. Regarding PhD training, continuation of participation in the national school Nethur is aimed at, while the local school will monitor progress locally and organize local training, such as writing in English or specific methodological workshops. The Graduate School of Spatial Sciences is supported by an Office Manager (Mrs S. Tiggelaar). At the time of writing, the shift towards the local Graduate School is in full progress.

The research programme ‘Regional studies of population, economy and culture, spatial planning and policy making’ consists of the four research sub-programmes B1.

Explaining spatial economic change, B2. Determinants of population dynamics, B3. Planning for environmental quality and B4. Making places. Although URSI aims at a

research programme in which departmental boundaries become blurred, the division into the sub-programmes still reflects the way in which research has traditionally been conducted, i.e. within the boundaries of a department. The leaders of the research sub-programmes coordinate and manage the research activities of their programme. Management styles and means of motivation are rather similar in the research sub-programmes (see Part B).

A3 STRATEGY AND POLICY

In the period under review, URSI employed several strategies in pursuing its objectives. To promote research activities, both within and outside the Faculty of Spatial Sciences (1999-mission objective 3) and to foster ties with research institutes and other relevant organizations outside the University of Groningen (1999-mission objective 4), URSI organized (for details see the website of URSI: www.rug.nl/ursi/events):

- Bi-annual URSI PhD conferences with presentations by PhD researchers, attended

by all URSI researchers. During their 4-year contract, PhD researchers give presentations at least twice at these conferences. The presentations are reviewed by other PhD researchers and discussed together. Occasionally, the conferences

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also include presentations and discussions on URSI’s research policies or new research directions. The PhD conferences always take place outside the Faculty and are always followed by an informal meeting, and are perceived to be stimulating.

- URSI lunch seminars, occasionally organized, including presentations by guest

researchers visiting URSI or presentations on specific research projects. The intensity of the lunch meetings varies. Two PhD researchers organize the seminars.

- Discussion meetings occasionally organized on a specific topic, with the main

objective to have informal and free discussions on an overlapping research issue. Discussion meetings focused on the concepts of decision-making and behaviour; space and spatial sciences; culture in social sciences; demographies of institutional entities; the region; identity; quantitative-qualitative research methods; epistemological issues. In recent years, the discussion meetings have been organized by the Research Nucleus.

- URSI reports, to publish intermediate results and contract research.

- National and international conferences at RUG such as:

- the ERSA 14th European Advanced Studies Institute in Regional Sciences, “To live and work in different urban systems” (2001), organized by URSI in collaboration with Nethur, SOM, Faculty of Economics RUG (Van Dijk).

- “Regio pakt de Ruimte” (2004); organized by URSI with the Collaborative Network Northern Netherlands and Region-vision Groningen-Assen, on regional development and spatial planning of the North of the Netherlands (De Roo).

- Nethur School “The dynamics of firm location” (2004); young European scientists presenting their research papers on firm location which were discussed with senior researchers (Van Wissen).

- Nethur School “Gender, diversity and urban space” (2005); an international expert meeting on gender research within spatial sciences (Van Hoven).

- Visiting scholars. A considerable number of foreign scholars visit the Faculty to

have meetings and discussions and to give presentations, and to prepare research proposals. URSI actively promotes these visits as they contribute to the scientific discourse. URSI researchers for their part were also very active in visiting international scientific meetings and sister institutes around the world.

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Former Research Review

The last Review Committee (report June 2001) was conducted for three separate programmes. The results were as follows:

Research programme Quality Productiviy Relevance Viability

Firm Location, Regional Development and Labour Market*

3 2.8 3.3 3

Planning for Environmental Quality

4 3.7 3 4

Demography** 4.5 3.7 5 4.5

* current sub-programme 1. Explaining spatial economic change ** current sub-programme 2. Determinants of population dynamics

Please note: the previous Review Committee applied the following scale of assessment: 5. excellent, 4. good, 3. satisfactory / average, 2. unsatisfactory, 1. poor.

Within the first research programme “Firm location, regional development and labour market”, the labour market part was evaluated positively:

The Review Committee clearly recognizes the important work carried out on labour market geography.

And:

Sound application of quantitative methods and corresponding theoretical concepts constitute the specificity of the programme within Dutch economic geography.

Points of criticism by the Committee were mainly targeted at firm demography. The broad diversity of PhD topics, the lack of an international orientation and the limited number of publications in international journals and not enough focus on methodological and conceptual issues were other points of criticism. According to the committee, professional work on routine research for the region may have restrained capacity that could have been used for a more international orientation and to publish more in international journals.

The faculty had confidence in the scientific potential of firm demography and appointed two professors in this research sub-programme: Van Wissen as Research Professor of Firm Demography in 1999, for 0.5 fte, for 5 years; Van Dijk as Professor of Regional Labour Markets in 2000. In line with the comments by the Review Committee, in the period under review research in this sub-programme has strongly focussed on development of these two main research themes and on cooperation between the two research themes and on internationalization of research (see Part B1 for more details).

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The research programme Planning for Environmental Quality was evaluated very positively (p. 32):

This is a small but academically strong research programme .. There is work of good scientific quality on the linkage between communicative planning with evaluation methodologies, on the development of pluralistic understanding of concepts of environmental quality, and innovative work on how multiple conceptions of qualities of ‘place’ and ‘heritage’ are made and remade through use. The recent focus on infrastructure planning has good potential. … The programme has a good international profile, reflected in journals, books and participation in international activities …

The committee concludes about Dutch planning research (p.12):

… while the smaller programmes achieved lower ratings. An exception to this conclusion is the planning programme of Groningen; despite being small to medium size, it was able to develop a distinct academic profile and showed high achievements in productivity and quality of research.

And, regarding planning in general in the Netherlands (p.14):

… In the Planning Research area, the Committee can note the emergence of new approaches such as interpretative, interactive and institutional ways of understanding the role of planning actions in complex societies.

The research programme in Demography was also evaluated very positively (see p. 33):

Since the previous research evaluation (1995) the demography programme has evolved into a reputable teaching and research unit in the Low Countries and Europe. Is has an excellent international reputation and has been able to activate research in LDCs as well. …. Their most important contribution has been a set of population projections that are considerably more elaborated than those provided by other sources. Furthermore, new statistical techniques are being explored in this field. The second area deals with reproductive health, and this has expanded most since the previous evaluation ..Both quantitative and qualitative research methods have been combined successfully. The group has also retained a major interest in theory and has systematically explored applications in life cycle demography. This has been a highly successful line of research …The research group is, however, reaching a saturation point of its capacities and any further growth implies additional staff inputs, as was also recommended five years ago.

And (p. 13):

The Committee was impressed by the high quality, relevance and viability and it recommends strengthening of this programme as much as possible in order to keep the tradition of academic Demography in the Netherlands alive and vibrant.

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The demography research team, after the departure of senior researchers Willekens and Scherbov in September 2003, was up to strength again in May 2005 and now comprises two full-time professors (Hutter and Van Wissen) and one Assistant Professor (Janssen). In general, for the national disciplinary field of geography, demography and spatial planning, the Committee advised the programme directors of Urban Geography, Urban and Regional Planning and Demography (p.9):

to maintain their current policy of publishing of a high proportion of their research results in international journals and even to increase this proportion up to the point where all major results of geographical research will be known internationally.

This, i.e. the emphasis on publishing in international journals, has been a leading principle within URSI in the period under review, but especially since 2003.

See Part B for more details per sub-programme.

A4 RESEARCHERS AND OTHER PERSONNEL

Table A1 indicates the total research time (fte) of URSI in the period under review. The aggregated numbers are based on the research time of the four different research sub-programmes as indicated in Tables B1.1 to B4.1. Please note: research ftes are indicated, with reference date January 2000-2007. The total research ftes are estimated over 7 years from 1 January 2007 backwards.

The following abbreviations are used:

ESEC Explaining Spatial Economic Change DPD Determinants of Population Dynamics PEQ Planning for Environmental Quality MP Making Places

There has been an increase in total research fte in the period under review. This is especially due to an increase in the number of PhD researchers. There is hardly any increase in research fte for tenured staff. Tenured staff is funded by FRW/RUG, except the researcher funded by NWO VENI in the period 2003-2007.

There has been an increase in research fte of non-tenured staff. Non-tenured staff is predominantly funded by FRW and by external funding (own department funds, NWO, EU, other contract funding).

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Table A1 Total research time (fte) of URSI, reference date 1 January 2000-2007 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 Total, 2000-2006 Tenured staff ESEC 1.10 1.10 1.10 0.98 0.98 0.98 1.5 1.50 8.14 DPD 1.18 1.30 1.20 1.20 0.80 0.80 1.08 0.88 7.26 PEQ 2.12 2.28 2.23 1.60 1.55 2.19 2.19 1.45 13.49 MP 1.43 1.42 1.13 1.58 1.5 1.02 1.71 1.90 10.26 Total 5.83 6.10 5.66 5.36 4.83 4.99 6.48 5.73 39.15 Non-tenured staff ESEC 0.50 0.90 0.90 0.90 1.26 0.92 1.04 1.20 7.12 DPD 2.00 2.70 1.10 1.10 0.10 1.10 1.50 1.00 8.60 PEQ 3.40 3.40 2.30 9.10 MP 0.20 0.35 0.19 0.87 0.40 2.01 Total 2.50 3.60 2.00 2.20 1.71 5.61 6.81 4.90 26.83 PhD (AIO-OIO) ESEC 1.70 3.40 2.55 3.40 3.25 1.65 0.80 1.65 16.70 DPD 0.85 0.85 0.85 0.85 0.85 0.85 4.25 PEQ 1.70 2.55 2.55 2.55 2.55 2.55 2.55 4.55 19.85 MP 1.70 2.70 2.70 2.55 1.70 0.70 0.85 11.20 Total 5.95 9.5 8.65 9.35 7.50 4.90 5.05 7.05 52.00 PhD (fellows) ESEC 2.0 1.0 3.00 DPD 5.0 4.0 8.0 7.0 6.0 7.0 4.0 5.0 41.00 PEQ 1.0 4.0 6.0 11.00 MP 0.00 Total 5.0 4.0 8.0 7.0 6.0 8.0 10.0 12.0 55.00 Total PhDs 10.95 13.5 16.65 16.35 13.50 12.90 15.05 19.05 107.0 Total research Staff 19.28 23.20 24.31 23.91 20.04 23.50 28.34 29.68 172.98 Supporting staff 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 1.40 Total 19.48 23.40 24.51 24.11 20.24 23.70 28.54 29.88 174.38

NB: long-term illness and maternity / parental leaves have been taken into account NB: total fte over 7 years from January 1 2007 backwards

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There thus has been a significant increase in PhD researchers, all of them having 4 years for their PhD research. The first category of PhD researchers (AIO and OIO) in Table A1 consists of researchers who are employed by FRW/RUG and thus have a status as employee:

- AIOs who are directly funded by FRW/RUG and spend 85% of their time on research, 15% on teaching.

- AIOs who are funded by contract funding (e.g. Housing Corporations Arnhem; EU) and spend 100% of their time on research.

- OIOs who are funded by research funding from NWO/KNAW, and dedicate 100% of their time to research.

There is an increase in research fte in PhD AIOs / OIOs, mainly due to contract funding. In addition, there are PhD researchers who are not employed by FRW/RUG, included in the second category of PhD researchers in Table A1:

- PhD fellows, many of them from outside the Netherlands, who receive a fellowship (RUG, Department, NWO, other funding agencies) or have own money, and dedicate all their time to research (100%).

- Sandwich PhD fellows, usually from collaborating research institutes, who conduct PhD research for four years but spend two years in Groningen and the other two at their own institute.

There has been an increase in the research fte of PhD fellows, i.e. from 5 in January 2000 to 12 in January 2007. This is an indication of an increasing interest of young people from outside the Netherlands in obtaining a PhD within URSI and of the growing international research network of URSI (i.e. fellowships for PhDs from international collaborating research institutes).

In the near future, the system of directly funded AIOs will change into the PhD student system. FRW will follow this policy within the framework of the Graduate School of Spatial Sciences. The PhD student system not only means an end to the inequality in status between AIOs and fellows, but will also allow (as costs are lower) an increase in the numbers of PhD researchers.

The increase in non-tenured staff and PhD researchers implies a rejuvenation of research staff. However, there is an imbalance between the number of PhD researchers and senior staff members, in some sub-programmes in particular (see Part B). There is thus the risk of overburdening senior staff. Although some post-doc researchers have been appointed in the period under review, sufficient staff at this post-doc level is badly needed, in some sub-programmes in particular.

In the period under review, URSI researchers were not always able to make use of the research time allotted to them. Some board members of URSI suffered long term illness in the period under review: the leader of B3. Planning for Environmental Quality (Voogd; Prof. Voogd died in March 2007) and the leader of B4. Making places (Huigen), and two professors (Strijker, Van Wissen). These periods of illness also increased the work pressure on other staff members. The introduction of the Bachelor-Master system definitely contributed to work pressure as well. In the research theme B4. Making places,

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several researchers took maternity and parental leaves. As a consequence, staff members of URSI share a general feeling that time left for research activities was inadequate. The total of 0.2 fte for supporting staff indicates the minimum amount of support directed specifically to research. This has implications, for example it requires more involvement by researchers in administrative work regarding finances, proposals, etc.

Recruitment and selection

Recruitment and selection of all personnel, from PhD researcher to full professor, follows standard rules set by the University. These include so-called UFO8 profiles and competences. There is usually a public advertisement in newspapers and on the website. Vacancies are often also mailed through the Nethur mailing list and other lists (such as AESOP, CERES, ERSA) relevant to the vacancy.

Regarding PhD candidates, priority is set at the moment on external candidates in order to ‘refresh’ the faculty. For example, recent PhD researchers originate from the University of Nijmegen, Cornell University (USA), the University of Warsaw, Bandung University, the International Institute of Population Sciences in Mumbai and the University of Beijing. This priority for external candidates, however, does not mean that internal students do not have a chance to become a PhD researcher: in the event of excellent performance, successful internal candidates are selected as well.

A committee selects the candidates on the basis of scientific quality such as publication record, teaching experience and a personal interview. A personnel officer of the University attends all personal interviews. In addition, the research interests of the candidate should fit URSI’s research programme. With full professors, a special RUG procedure is followed (e.g. structure report, consultation with sister faculties, etc).

In recent years, it has become more difficult to recruit staff members, within some sub-programmes in particular. This is related to a tighter labour market due to aging and economic recovery, but also to a lack of career opportunities for partners in or near Groningen.

In spring 2004, the Faculty was one the first RUG faculties to formulate tenure track paths and have them approved by the Board of the University. Candidates must have an excellent track record and be considered prime candidates for a future professorship. The research nucleus (Dr Beaumont) started his tenure track in 2005; Dr Van Hoven started her tenure track on 1 January 2007. The tenure tracks are not only regarded as instruments to enhance the personal career of promising young scientists and to rejuvenate the research staff, but also to develop research themes that include the research expertise of researchers from different departments.

External, selected, PhD researchers who participate in URSI and are often employed elsewhere and work on their dissertation in their spare time. URSI provides them with supervision and library facilities.

8_{This is an acronym for Universitair Functie Ordenen, a system to indicate what tasks and duties are expected from the} different functions at a university. The descriptions provide a profile per function and a list of competences.

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URSI receives many applications to conduct PhD research from interested researchers. However, generally speaking funding is a major constraint on actual admissions.

Travel grants

The Faculty stimulates the participation of URSI members in international conferences, with accepted papers, by providing every staff member with a travel grant for at least one conference outside Europe. If a paper is of excellent quality, or participation in a conference is highly relevant, either the Faculty Board or the Departments will fund participation in additional conferences.

Data sets / fieldwork

There is a budget for data sets needed for secondary data analysis. Contributions to primary data collection, i.e. conducting fieldwork, are occasionally provided as well, either by the Faculty or the Departments.

PhD / dissertation grant

FRW has a generous funding system regarding the PhD dissertation. Most of the English correction and editing will be funded by the Faculty, as well as the reception after the PhD defence. The departments themselves cover the additional costs.

Training

FRW stimulates training of all staff members. In the period under review, courses in Academic writing in English (especially for PhD researchers), data archiving, reference management, time management, and research management were supported. The Faculty also contributed to a special NWO PhD meeting (Talentendag), organized in Groningen. For all professors in the faculty, management training was organized in 2005 related to supervision of PhD researchers. In 2006, intervision meetings for assistant professors in the faculty were organized.

Supervision of staff

Each year, all tenured staff members have an interview with their supervisor. Usually, the chairperson of the Department conducts the interview. Full professors are interviewed by the Dean. During the interview, teaching and research activities, appointments made, future plans, and courses or training needed are discussed. Since 2006, discussions on competences form part of the interview. The minutes of these interviews are submitted to the member of the Faculty Board responsible for Finance and Management (Groen). At the start of their projects, PhD researchers with their supervisors have to draw up a so-called PhD plan, which includes the educational plan, modules to be followed and an agreement on the amount of time for supervision. PhD researchers in the first year of research have monitoring interviews after 2, 6 and 12 months. After one year, if progress is not sufficient and the supervisors do not trust that the PhD candidate can finish in time, the Faculty Board can dissolve the PhD research.

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A5 RESOURCES, FUNDING AND FACILITIES

Table A2 indicates the funding of research activities in the period 2000-2006

Table A2 Funding and expenditure at URSI In K.euro Funding 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 Total Direct funding 645 (81.6 %) 760 (95.0%) 729 (96.0%) 798 (88.7%) 767 (83.7%) 919.2 (66.5%) 1035.2 (67.6%) 5653.4 (79.9%) Research funds 88.5 (11.2 %) 13.2 (1.6 %) - 52.7 (5.9%) 84.0 (9.3%) 97.0 (7.0%) 92.6 (6.0%) 428 (6.0%) Contracts 57.3 (7.2 %) 27.2 (3.4) 30.5 (4.0%) 48.1 (5.4%) 64.2 (7.0%) 366.5 (27.5%) 403.8 (26.4%) 997.6 (14.1%) Other 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Total 790.8 (100%) 800.4 (100%) 759.5 (100%) 899.8 (100%) 915.2 (100%) 1382.7 (100%) 1531.6 (100%) 7079 (100%) Expendi-ture 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 Total Personnel costs 674.7 (98.0%) 820.2 (97.6%) 760.3 (99.7 %) 824.4 93.8%) 891.2 (92.2%) 1196.0 (87.2 %) 1326.3 (87.2%) 6493.1 (92.4%) Other costs 13.5 20.0 2.7 54.2 75.2 174.1 194.5 534.2 Total 688.2 (100%) 840.2 (100%) 763.0 (100%) 878.6 (100%) 966.4 (100%) 1370.1 (100%) 1520.8 (100%) 7027.3 (100%)

• Direct funding: FRW / RUG

• Research funding: NWO, KNAW (competitive)

• Contract funding: 3rd_{parties including EU (competitive)}

In the period under review, but especially since 2003-04, funding of URSI research increased at all levels.

There was an increase in total direct funding (FRW/RUG), from EUR 600,000 to EUR 1035,200, which is mainly due to the appointment of non-tenured staff such as the research nucleus, and the appointment of PhD fellows, i.e. the Ubbo Emmius PhD fellows and Bernoulli fellowships (RUG), plus matching of projects. Relatively, however, direct funding decreased in the period under review, especially since 2005 when more contract funding was acquired.

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Research funding (competitive) is relatively stable (at around EUR 85,000-90,000), with only some years as an exception. The funding includes:

- NWO Aspasia9 Associate Professor / post-doc researcher VENI10 post-doc researcher

OIOs

PhD fellow WOTRO Project funding IDPAD - KNAW PhD fellow

Project funding

The number of projects acquired from research funding definitely needs to be increased in future.

The biggest increase took place in contract funding (competitive), from EUR 57,000 in 2000 to EUR 403,000 in 2006. Research funding originates from:

- EU funds Project funding: POWER, Liveable Cities, Plurel ERSA Summerschool

RTN Training Network - Ministries Ministry of Agriculture (Mansholt)

Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Ministry of Economic Affairs–Senternovem

Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and Environment - UN UNFPA (United Nations Population Fund)

- Private Housing Corporations Friesland Housing Corporations Arnhem

Bernard van Leer Foundation Gratema Stichting Details are provided per sub-programme in Part B.

Major expenditure relates to personnel, although in the past two years there has been an increasing percentage of expenditure on other costs, i.e. research costs.

Housing and equipment

Until January 2006, the Faculty was housed in the WSN building at the Zernike complex. In December 2005, staff members and equipment of FRW moved to a temporary building (Dierenriemstraat), for a period of two years. The reason for this is the renovation of the WSN building. In December 2007 the FRW will move back to Zernike and occupy its own building. The move to our own building is intended to enhance visibility and to facilitate further development of the Faculty as one unit.

9_{Aspasia is a national NWO programme aiming at the increase of appointments of female Associate Professors at} universities. The upgrade from Assistant Professor to Associate Professor is taken care by the universities while NWO provides additional funding for a PhD or post-doc researcher.

10_{VENI is one of the three funding possibilities (VENI, VIDI, VICI) by NWO for personal research. VENI aims at} post-doctoral researchers.

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Faculty library

The Faculty library is part of the library of Economics/Management/ Spatial Sciences at the WSN building in the Zernike complex. The faculty library contains approximately 75,000 books, and 2,200 subscriptions to journals. There is electronic access to about 1,600 electronic journals. The library collection is taken care of by staff members of all 4 departments who monitor the collection and take requests for needs indicated by the staff of FRW.

Computer and other facilities

URSI’s policy and philosophy is that all PhD researchers have a work station and computer, an e-mail address, access to the library, access to travel grants, training, etc.

A6 PROCESSES IN RESEARCH, INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL COLLABORA-TIONS

Processes in research are described in detail above, in sections A1-A5.

Based on the internal and external collaborations of researchers within the different research sub-programmes, as described in Part B, URSI collaborates:

- within the RUG with the CDS, the Faculty of Economics and the Faculty of Arts (Department of History, the Arctic Centre), and the Interfaculty Institute of Integration and Social Efficacy situated at the Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences.

- at a national level within the national Graduate School Nethur; with the Netherlands Institute of Spatial Research (Ruimtelijk Plan Bureau), the Hague; Netherlands Statistics (CBS), Voorburg; the Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute (NIDI), the Hague; within the consortium SenterNovem Long Term Strategy research project Energy and Regional Planning (TU Delft, University of Wageningen).

- at an international level with different universities in the UK (Durham, Leeds, Northumbria, Southampton) and the USA (Washington), within different networks such as NEURUS (Network for European and U.S. Regional and Urban Studies); the European Doctoral School for Demography (EDSD), and consortia such as the Plurel 6th EU Framework programme, and ERSA.

In addition, there is a strong focus on Asia with collaborations with several research institutes in India (Jawaharlal Nehru University, JNU Delhi; International Institute for Population Sciences, IIPS Mumbai; Karnatak University), Indonesia (University of Bandung) and China (University of Beijing).

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A7 ACADEMIC REPUTATION

URSI’s academic reputation is derived from the academic reputation of the different research sub-programmes (see Part B).

In summary, URSI’s academic reputation is especially based on: - increasing numbers of international publications

- membership of KNAW (Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences) and researchers

- participating - by invitation - in national research funding committees of NWO, KNAW

- participating - by invitation - in Editorial Boards of international journals, or being Editor-in-Chief

- chairing / co-chairing or being a member of international disciplinary associations or boards

- starting innovative new international disciplinary associations (founding members)

and

- young researchers receiving prizes and awards as promising young researchers - funding acquired from both research funding (NWO and KNAW), and

contract research (especially EU)

- invitations as international experts to contribute to a particular disciplinary field.

See Part B for more information.

A8 INTERNAL EVALUATION

The URSI annual report provides information on the number of new research projects, the number of publications and PhD dissertations, etc. This information is also included in the Nethur annual report. The Annual Report is presented at the URSI PhD conference. Additionally, the URSI Board provides policy advice and consultation regarding research matters and monitors the scientific quality of projects. For example as mentioned before, PhD proposals must be approved by two URSI Board members before they are accepted as URSI PhD projects. In the period under review, policies and strategies were discussed, for example regarding the need to rework conference papers into articles in international journals.

The new Graduate School of Spatial Sciences will enhance the monitoring of progress and quality of supervision of PhD research. There are already several monitoring tools in place. Internal monitoring takes place via the so-called PhD plan, evaluation discussions after 2, 6 and 12 months (for PhD researchers in the first year), and the annual evaluation discussions (see A3). However, the feedback from these monitoring tools is not yet optimal.

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Further monitoring and feedback on PhD research takes place in the bi-monthly PhD meetings which aim at

- sharing information on activities between the PhD researchers: conferences attended, modules followed and taught, publications submitted.

- discussing contents and topics of PhD conferences, lunch seminars. - discussing possibilities and needs for further meetings, seminars, etc. - monitoring progress; identifying - if relevant - problems faced. - discussing supervision of PhD researchers.

In sum, there are many internal evaluation and monitoring tools in place, but feedback could be more accurate and improved.

A9 EXTERNAL VALIDATION

URSI’s objective is to produce high quality scientific research, aimed at peers, to increase academic knowledge; but also to disseminate research to policymakers, NGOs and the general public, thus enhancing evidence-based interventions and policymaking. Regarding this latter objective, URSI focuses on:

- evidence-based advice for policymakers, for example in the Northern Netherlands on the regional labour market, regional firm demography, the zone around highway A7

- evidence-based advice for other stakeholders in society, for example Housing Corporations

- evidence-based interventions, for example reproductive health education campaign in India

- evidence-based presentations through the media, for example interviews for local and national broadcasting companies

- participation in boards of relevant societal organizations.

In recent years, PhD researchers started to conduct contract research, for example for the EU and housing corporations. Increasingly, too, research is conducted in consortia of researchers and societal stakeholders, i.e. policy makers, civil society or NGOs. URSI’s experience in this will be useful for future funding.

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A10 OVERVIEW OF THE RESULTS

The aggregated number of publications for URSI is depicted in Table A3. The table is based on the number publications by the different research sub-programmes presented in part B.

The following abbreviations are used:

ESEC Explaining Spatial Economic Change DPD Determinants of Population Dynamics PEQ Planning for Environmental Quality MP Making Places

The data indicate a steady overall increase in academic output in URSI, especially since 2005, regarding both refereed articles (greatest contribution by sub-programme B1.

Explaining Spatial Economic Change) and chapters in books (greatest contribution by

sub-programme B3. Planning for Environmental Quality).

The number of monographs also increased (especially contributions from B3. Planning

for Environmental Quality). The total number of PhD theses is 40 (greatest contribution

by sub-programme B2. Determinants of Population Dynamics). Thus, the total academic output amounts to 302 academic publications.

The number of professional publications has decreased considerably over the years, as aimed at: from 105 in 2000 to 76 in 2006. The number of academic publications and professional publications grew closer to each other, i.e. from 39 versus 105 in 2000, to 55 versus 73 in 2006. This reflects URSI’s policy of emphasizing the importance of academic publications.

URSI produced 40 PhD theses in the period under review, i.e. an average of 6 per year, with the exception of the years 2000 (10) and 2005 (8). Every PhD researcher has a period of 4 years to complete his/her PhD thesis. The average duration of PhD research within URSI, since 1995, is 5.2 years. A few PhD researchers, especially from outside the Netherlands within the research sub-programme B2. Determinants of Population

Dynamics, succeeded to complete their PhDs in very short time, the shortest duration

being 2.4 years.

For a comparison between output in the period 2000-2006 and output in the previous evaluation period 1995-1999, see the sub-programmes in part B.

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Table A3 Aggregated results of URSI

Total Research programme Regional studies of population, economy and culture, planning and policy making

2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 Total Ref. journals ESEC 13 10 12 10 12 14 14 85 DPD 5 6 8 6 4 3 5 37 PEQ 2 5 6 3 7 12 9 44 MP 1 4 3 6 1 0 1 16 21 25 29 25 24 29 29 182 Book chapters 1.Academic publications ESEC 0 2 2 3 1 2 3 13 DPD 2 3 0 1 0 0 1 7 PEQ 2 7 1 1 4 5 11 31 MP 0 0 0 1 2 8 2 13 4 12 3 6 7 15 17 64 2. Monographs ESEC 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 DPD 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 PEQ 3 2 1 1 2 4 2 15 MP 0 0 0 0 1 2 0 3 3 2 1 1 3 6 4 20 3. PhD theses ESEC 0 1 1 0 0 3 1 6 DPD 5 1 2 4 4 2 1 19 PEQ 4 1 0 0 1 1 2 9 MP 1 1 1 0 0 2 1 6 10 4 4 4 5 8 5 40 Total academic 39 43 37 36 39 58 55 306 4 Professional publications ESEC 46 34 30 40 43 33 34 260 DPD 9 20 11 8 4 19 5 76 PEQ 22 33 18 25 44 32 24 198 MP 28 20 26 18 20 15 10 137 105 107 85 91 111 99 73 671 Abbreviations:

ESEC 1. Explaining Spatial Economic Change DPD 2. Determinants of Population Dynamics PEQ 3. Planning for Environmental Quality MP 4. Making Places

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A11 ANALYSIS, PERSPECTIVES AND EXPECTATIONS

Strengths

- Participation of all URSI researchers in national research school Nethur, since 2003

- URSI’s drive towards one all-encompassing research programme where researchers share expertise and experience

- Several newly formulated policies and strategies enhancing research, in the period under review (see Introduction)

- Scientific research at regional, national and international levels - International research collaborations in India, China, Indonesia

- Scientific research mainly focusing on peers and also dissemination to stakeholders in society

- URSI PhD conferences, lunch seminars, discussion meetings perceived as very positive

- Small organization, short communication lines - Recent rejuvenation of the research staff

- Recent ‘refreshing’ of research staff, through appointments (PhD in particular) from outside FRW/RUG

- Increase in direct funding for research - Increase in contract funding for research - Increase in academic publications

- Increasing balance between academic and professional publications Weaknesses / points for improvement

- Imbalance between number of senior staff and PhD researchers, some sub-programmes in particular

- Missing link between older and younger staff, at post-doc level - Need for better feedback mechanisms PhD monitoring

- Percentage of research funding (NWO/KNAW) still low - Finding a good balance between research and teaching - Supporting staff for research is minimal (only 0.2 fte) Opportunities / challenges

- Upgrading of professional publications (still relatively high) towards international academic publications; i.e. more international academic publications

- Graduate School of Spatial Sciences: enhancement of feedback regarding monitoring of PhD research

- FRW moving to a new, own building, strengthening identity

- Centre for Development Studies on Faculty’s premises: international research in developing countries

- Collaboration RUG-Uppsala University: research exchange regarding research in developing countries

- Tendency of funding agencies towards more societally relevant research, URSI already has experience

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- Future university direct funding policy: to be influenced by research funding and contract funding

- Increasing demand from international sister institutes for joint research and teaching

- Convenants with knowledge institutes such as specialized departments from Ministries (DWW, Rijkswaterstaat)

Threats

- If more staff are not appointed at post-doc level, overburdening tenured staff - Unexpected policy shifts in research funding

- Increased demand for matching research, threatening the financial viability of the Faculty

- RUG situated in periphery of the Netherlands

- Difficulties in recruiting researchers and staff members in Groningen, among others due to the lack of career opportunities for partners; this problem may increase in the coming period with a tighter labour market due to aging and the economic recovery

Developments and expectations for URSI

Based on the SWOT analysis, URSI thus will focus in the coming years on: - more joint research within URSI

- writing more research funding proposals (NWO / KNAW). Writing proposals will be stimulated by providing time to researchers who are able and willing to write these proposals; by sharing experiences in proposal writing; by critically

reflecting and discussing proposals together - appointing / contracting more post-doc staff

- even more balance between international academic publications and professional publications, i.e. more international academic publications

- enhancing feedback mechanisms on monitoring of supervision of PhD researchers, especially through the Graduate School

- enhancing the balance between teaching and research - linking up with international research institutes

URSI’s mission for the coming period 2006-2012 remains the same, although more emphasis will be given to international research:

- to conduct high quality scientific research on urban and regional problems from a multidisciplinary perspective (economic and cultural geography, demography, planning),

- aiming at peers, and increase the body of academic knowledge on urban and regional problems, and

- disseminate this scientific research to policy makers, NGOs and the general public, thus providing an evidence base to policymaking and interventions.

- to enhance capacity-building in the scientific field of urban and regional problems from this multidisciplinary perspective, in particular.

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PART B RESEARCH PROGRAMME

Regional studies of population, economy and culture, planning and policymaking URSI coordinates the research programme Regional Studies of population, economy and

culture, planning and policy making. The overall programme consists of:

1. Explaining spatial-economic change (leader: Prof. J. van Dijk) a. Regional labour market analysis (Van Dijk)

b. Demography of firms (Pellenbarg, Van Wissen)

2. Determinants of population dynamics (leader till 2003: Prof. F.J. Willekens; then: Prof. I. Hutter)

a. Monitoring demographic change (Willekens, Van Wissen) b. Reproductive health and culture (Hutter)

3. Planning for environmental quality (leader: Prof. H. Voogd; ad-interim: Prof. G. de Roo)

a. Heritage (Ashworth, Groote)

b. Urban and regional planning (Voogd)

c. Energy and environmental health and hygiene (De Roo) d. Socio-ethical side to planning (Beaumont)

4. Making places (leader: Prof. P.P.P. Huigen) a. Ruralities (Strijker)

b. Heritage (Ashworth and Groote) c Belonging and identities (Van Hoven)

Characteristic of the research programme is the study of actors (people, institutions, firms) in space and regarding place:

- at the regional and individual levels,

- from a multidisciplinary perspective of economic geography, cultural geography, demography, and spatial planning,

- from an economic but also a cultural perspective,

- from theoretical perspectives on human and institutional (spatial) behaviour, decision-making, culture and institutions, communicative action, complexity, - applying

- quantitative (especially survey) and qualitative research methods (in-depth interviews; Focus Group Discussions; participant observation; media analysis); - quantitative analyses techniques (spatial analysis, survey analysis, modelling, GIS), and qualitative analysis techniques (grounded theory);

- thus building up academic knowledge, in academic output for peers, and - thus providing evidence for interventions or policy making.