AESOP newsletter - September 2026

The AESOP Excellence in Education Board is inviting AESOP member institutions to apply for the AESOP's Quality Recognition programme. The Quality Recognition (QR) programme is a voluntary programme of mutual learning and continual support within the AESOP community, which aims to recognise and promote the quality of individual planning programmes delivered by AESOP member institutions.

The QR process encompasses a range of opportunities for participating institutions:

• Engagin…

AESOP is looking for new members to join the Excellence in Education Board (EEB), as the current board reaches the end of its term at the end of 2026. The new Board will be comprised of 10 members, who will have a three-year term of appointment, from 1st January 2027 to 31st December 2029.

EEB member responsibilities include:

• Looking after the evolution and enhancement of the AESOP Quality Recognition (QR) Programme as defined on the AESOP website: 

https://aesop-planning…

AESOP is pleased to announce the upcoming Lecture Series event “Planning Groundwater Futures”, hosted by the İzmir Institute of Technology (İYTE/IZTECH). The event will explore the links between groundwater management, climate adaptation, drinking-water resilience and integrated water governance.

The keynote lecture, “Surface Water and Groundwater Interactions under Climate Stress,” will be delivered by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Konstantina Katsanou from the IHE Delft Institute for…

AESOP is pleased to announce the upcoming Lecture Series event “Gender-Equitable Urban Development: Bridging Research and Practice,” hosted by Weihenstephan-Triesdorf University of Applied Sciences (HSWT).

The lecture will be delivered by Dr Mary Dellenbaugh-Losse, an urban researcher and consultant specialising in gender-equitable urban development. She is also the author of the acclaimed book Gendergerechte Stadtentwicklung: Wie wir eine Stadt für alle bauen (2024), whose…

AESOP is pleased to announce that Brandenburg University of Technology (BTU) Cottbus–Senftenberg, in collaboration with Technische Universität Berlin (TU Berlin), has been selected to host the AESOP Heads of Schools Meeting 2027. The selection was formally approved during the AESOP Council of Representatives meeting held in Helsinki in July 2026.

The meeting will take place in March 2027, with activities hosted across both Cottbus and Berlin, offering participants the…

The AESOP Young Academics Network (YAN) invites all young academics to participate in a new survey exploring the educational role of the network and the experiences of its members.

We are interested in learning how YAN supports peer learning, collaboration, knowledge exchange, and professional development. Your experiences will help us better understand the value of young academic networks while informing the future development of YAN activities.

The survey takes approximately …

How do urban futures flow?

Multiple, interconnected challenges are unfolding simultaneously. Climate change, environmental degradation, technological shifts, rapid urbanisation, migration, and geopolitical instability are reshaping cities and urban life. Planners play a crucial role in co-shaping urban futures through transformative action that addresses today’s rapidly evolving needs while safeguarding the needs of future generations. This task is complicated by the…

As a result of an election procedure open to everyone interested, the AESOP Planning/Conflict Thematic Group (TG) has chosen the members of the new coordination team (in alphabetical order):

- Francesco Campagnari, Centre for Research on Environmental and Social Change, University of Antwerpen

- Neeklashi Joshi, Leibniz Institute of Ecological Urban and Regional Development (IOER)

- Carolina Pacchi, Department of Architecture and Urban Studies (DAStU), Politecnico di Milano

The…

Urban Complex Futures: Critical Leverage Points

Invitation to Online Series

The urban condition today oscillates between dystopian and utopian futures: increasing spatial segregation, political polarisation, socio-economic inequality, authoritarian governance, retrogressive and repressive national interventions are unfolding alongside a resurgence of urban agency, long-term thinking, visionary planning, collective action, community building, and the exploration of alternative…

Organised by the Associação Portuguesa de Urbanistas (APU) and the European Council of Spatial Planners – Conseil européen des urbanistes (ECTP-CEU), the Biennale will bring together spatial planners, researchers, policymakers and representatives of public authorities from across Europe. 

The Lens of Time in Spatial Planning

Under the theme “The Lens of Time in Spatial Planning”, the 2026 edition will explore time as a vital dimension of space, reflecting on the capacity of…

The 1st International School on Landscape, Heritage and Sustainable Development (Cilento, Italy, 7–11 October 2026), organised by Heritage International Institute and Eurac Research, provides an intensive and practice-oriented programme combining international lectures, fieldwork and a Policy Lab focused on landscape governance, cultural heritage, territorial development, climate transition and innovation. Participants will work alongside leading scholars and practitioners…

AESOP is pleased to share an invitation from the SURE Facilitation and Synthesis Project (F&SR) at HafenCity University Hamburg, Germany, encouraging members of the planning community to participate in an international research survey on decision-making for sustainable urban development.

The project, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR), seeks to better understand how decisions are made across different planning contexts and what…

 Call for Applications for a PhD position at Dept. of Architecture, University of Bologna, Italy, in the PhD programme Architecture and Design Cultures. details of the call and the specific positions can be found here:

https://www.unibo.it/en/study/phd-professional-masters-specialisation-schools-and-other-programmes/phd/2026-2027/architecture-and-design-cultures

Call for Applications - Third Round - 42nd cycle

Application deadline: Oct 08, 2026 at 11:59 PM

Topic (see PhD…

The Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Michigan invites applications for the Fishman Fellowship, established by and named in honor of Professor Emeritus Robert Fishman. This fellowship is open to individuals who are in the process of completing or have recently completed a Ph.D., a professional degree in architecture or urban planning, a research-oriented post-professional master’s degree, or research-focused master’s degree. Potential…