We are pleased to confirm that the abstract submission deadline for the 2024 UK-Ireland Planning Research Conference has been extended to Tuesday 4th June at 11.59pm.
The University of Reading will host this year’s conference, from Monday 2nd September to Wednesday 4th September, at our London Road Campus (25 minutes' walk/10 minutes by bus from Reading Train Station). This year’s theme is ‘Planning for Nature/Nature of Planning’, focusing on how the multiple crises facing our natural environment are interacting with the multiple planes along which the planning discipline is evolving:
- Planning for Nature: Effective planning should be at the forefront of protecting the natural environment. This theme addresses how planning is experimenting with a range of different approaches to addressing multiple environmental crises.
- Nature of Planning: Simultaneously, planning as a discipline itself is evolving in terms of how it is organised and institutionalised, how it has become increasingly politicised and even the extent to which it will be a human-led practice in the future. This theme addresses questions around the discipline’s internal evolution.
Registration for the conference is now is open on the conference website:https://live.henley.ac.uk/events/145467
Abstract Requirements
Paper abstracts can be submitted by completing the form at the following link: https://forms.office.com/e/MYnBwEX1rV
A second form is available for the submission of proposals for roundtables and special sessions: https://forms.office.com/e/kVK9CitXsD
The following requirements for abstract submission are embedded in the form:
- Abstracts should be a maximum of 250 words long, excluding references.
- A paper title and up to five Harvard style references can be provided in separate fields.
- Authors are asked provide up to five keywords.
- There are no named tracks and the Conference Organising Committee will make decisions about how to group papers, based on the key words provided. However, authors are asked to specify if they would like their paper to be included in one of the two headline tracks; ‘Planning for Nature’ and ‘Nature of Planning’.
Programme
The main conference will start at 5pm on Monday 2nd September and finish around 4pm on Wednesday 4th September. The detailed conference programme will be confirmed in July, once all abstract acceptances are confirmed. However, the outline programme is as follows:
- Monday 2nd September: PhD Workshop, Planning Schools Forum annual meeting, opening event on Planning for Nature, welcome reception & RTPI Research Awards
- Tuesday 3rd September: Parallel Tracks, half-day field trips and evening event on the Future of the Planning Profession
- Wednesday 4th September: Parallel Tracks and closing event on Planning Education
Registration Fees
Registration is now open on the conference website, and the range of fees is as follows:
- Earlybird Full Conference Fee: £290 (until Sunday 30th June 2024)
- Full Conference Fee: £340 (after Sunday 30th June 2024)
- One Day Conference Fee: £180
- Subsidised Conference Fee: £165 (20 places available)
The subsidised places are available to PhD Student, Early Career Researchers and Practitioners, and come with support for travel and accommodation expenses. More details of eligibility can be found under the ‘Support for PhDs, Early Career Researchers & Practitioners’ tab.
Tuesday Afternoon Field Trips
After registering you will be given the choice to select one of three field trips, included in the conference fee, that will take place on Tuesday afternoon:
- 75 Years of Bracknell New Town: A walking tour of Bracknell town centre, including the recent Lexicon regeneration project, in conjunction with the 75th anniversary of it being designated as a new town.
- Planning, Diversification and Natural Capital on a Rural Estate: Looking at how a landed estate is working with the planning system, including diversifying their activities and making use of their land and property assets.
- The Many Faces of Reading Town Centre: Looking at how Reading has evolved from hosting a world famous biscuit factory and incarcerating a popular poet and playwright, to a major commercial and retail centre.
Support for PhDs, Early Career Researchers & Practitioners
With the support of Reading Real Estate Foundation, funding is being made available to support attendance from PhDs, Early Career Researchers and practitioners who are not able to access other sources of conference funding:
- 20 subsidised places, £250 each.
- Split between £125 conference fee subsidy and travel and accommodation expenses of up to £125.
Details of how to access these places can be found on the conference website.
Conference Organising Committee & Contact Details:
- Chris Maidment – Chair
- Vicky Barnard – Conference Assistant
- Angelique Chettiparamb
- Angela Cropley
- Mark Dobson
- Claudia Murray
- Victor Nicholls
- Gavin Parker
- Emma Street
For any queries or questions about the conference please contact Chris Maidment by emailing
