RSA Travel Grant - RSA Main

Previous Awards

Anthony Flegg

Name of event: 29th International Input-Output Conference

Participation in the conference was very high: over four days, 288 IIOA members from 36 countries presented 252 papers. Along with plenary sessions, there were specialized parallel sessions, normally with six sessions running simultaneously. This arrangement maximized the number of possible presentations, yet it was often very difficult to decide which sessions to attend. Many of the presentations were on environmental topics, which is a rapidly growing focus of research in input-output (IO) analysis. In addition, there were several presentations (such as mine), which addressed methodological issues. The quality of the presentations was typically very high, although there were some that were good in terms of content but poor in terms of delivery. Often this was a result of a lack of fluency in English, along with too much detail on slides.

My research is concerned with the use of non-survey methods in constructing regional IO models. Such models are a very useful aid to regional analysis. However, there is a paucity of suitable regional data to build regional models. One relatively straightforward and inexpensive way round this problem is to adapt the national IO table by using readily available national and regional employment or output data by sector, along with some form of location quotient (LQ) such as the FLQ (Flegg’s LQ). The FLQ was first proposed in a seminal paper in Regional Studies in 1995. I presented the latest refinement of this technique. This was tested by using the survey-based national and regional data sets constructed by the Bank of Korea for 2005 and 2015. Normally, such survey-based regional data are unavailable. South Korea is a rare exception and the Bank’s data sets offer an opportunity to test alternative methods.

This conference was unique in that it didn’t take place in a conference centre or hotel but instead in several buildings scattered around the charming old city of Alghero. This was a refreshing change from other conferences I’ve attended but it did mean that I often tended to get lost! Also, the multiplicity of conference locations meant that it was impractical to display RSA materials. However, at the outset of my presentation, I mentioned the RSA’s award of a generous travel grant to attend this conference. I also mentioned the RSA’s annual conferences and its work in publishing journals such as Regional Studies and Spatial Economic Analysis. My grant is acknowledged on the first page of my conference paper (see separate email).

My conference paper was co-authored by scholars from the Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Spain, the University of Jyväskylä, Finland, and the Escuela Politécnica Nacional, Ecuador. We have submitted it for publication in the Annals of Regional Science. If accepted, I will add an acknowledgement to the RSA.

The conference offered many networking opportunities, along with the chance to gain critical feedback from an expert audience. The session I chaired was well attended and there was some lively debate.

For me, the highlights of the social programme were a performance of Italian operatic works in the old theatre and the conference dinner in a rural restaurant, which gave me a chance to try typical Sardinian delicacies. Overall, this conference was an enjoyable and useful experience.

Miriam de Oliveira Goncalves

Name of event: Annual Congress of Association of European School of Planning (AESOP)

The AESOP Annual Congress is a wide platform of exchange in the fields of research, education, and practice in planning. This year the central theme was the current challenges for a sustainable future. The ongoing global turbulence scenario raises the question of the effectiveness and legitimacy of using the existing, more traditional planning approaches. In this
sense, innovative ideas, and solutions for the present conditions of high uncertainty of events, risks, and anthropogenic
and natural hazards have been discussed.

In this context, my presentation focused on the role of Local Action Groups (LAGs) as territorial development polities and their possible capacity of contributing for the design of a sustainable, resilient future. Moreover, the presentation aimed at providing a contribution to the governance innovation debate focussing on the specific agency of LAGs in the territory
of Lisbon Metropolitan Area. Since LAGs’ inception – financed by the European Commission (EC) instrument LEADER in the 1990s – they were sold on their capacity to better engage local stakeholder mobilisation, proactiveness and capacitybuilding for the design and implementation of Local Development Strategies (LDS) – a spatial imaginary for an ad hoc
territory. In other words, LAG’s place-based, context-dependent structure, and agency were understood as a trigger for
local governance innovation.

Against the backdrop of ongoing Europeanisation dynamics and a soft turn in planning theory and practice, I have presented an overview of the LAG landscape in Lisbon Metropolitan Area, as well as preliminary reflections on their role as territorial development polities, according to my research field work conducted so far: governance levels interviews and online survey. The panel in which the presentation took place was entitled “Innovation, deliberation, and placebased approach” (Fig. 1) and it was moderated by Prof. Valeria Lingua (University of Florence) and Prof. Verena Balz (Delft University of Technology). The benefit I took from this opportunity can be described as follows: Firstly, it was highly valuable having these distinguished senior professors and researchers analysing and discussing my work. Secondly, attending not only this panel but other related panels brought insights for the future of my research possible approaches.
Thirdly, at the audience I had the privilege of having one of the main authors on my research object: Prof. Loris Servillo.

Finally, another relevant aspect for myself personally – as an architect and urbanist – was the opportunity of visiting Poland, specifically the city of Łódź. The mobile tour I participated – centred on the three main cultures (Polish, Russian and Jewish) that built the city – provided detailed information on the past and future of the city. Taking stock on its industrial past, and after a period of acute decline, the city is currently going under a major urban renewal of public and private areas – focussing on economic attractiveness/competitiveness as well as providing better living conditions for its citizens and tourists (Fig. 2, 3, 4). Summarizing, attending this Conference with the support of RSA has been one of the highlights of this year, academically, professionally, and personally.

Yingyu Feng

Event: Chinese Real Estate Congress 2019 Annual Conference (GCREC 2019)

Title of presentation: We Are Where We Live: Built Environments and Health

My research is a population-based study using health data (hospital admitted patient data) to analyse the effects of neighbourhood social and built environment risk factors through a multilevel approach. The aim is to guide future urban planning for building sustainable and healthy cities. The study is the first population-based study establishing the links between ‘Place’ and ‘Health’ in terms of osteoarthritis condition in the Australian context. It has tangible potentials to be translated into initiatives and practices in urban planning and renewal for future city development.

The conference provided an excellent venue for me to disseminate the health research findings in the domain of urban planning and real estate development domain. This has not only added to the existing evidence of the links between environment and health and made a higher societal impact in a wider context, but also raised awareness of the importance of considering the impact on health while designing our urban environment. This addressed the challenges and issues in promoting sustainable development of urban space to encourage healthy eating living and improve health. This is particularly relevant to policymakers and urban developers during planning and renewal for future cities and has an impact on everyone’s life.

The conference has also provided me with an unrivalled opportunity to network with the leading researchers in this field: I have established collaborative opportunities with researchers in Qinghua University, Taiwan, and Harvard University in the U.S. I have also acted as an ambassador for RSA to promote the various opportunities it offers to researchers to participate in internationally renowned conferences and conduct research. It has helped me to extend my research with the newly-developed networks and contribute further to the scientific knowledge and excellence in this field.

Linda Wollersheim

Name of event: KOSMOS Conference – Navigating the Sustainability Transformation in the 21st Century, Humboldt University Berlin

The RSA Travel Grant allowed me to attend the KOSMOS Sustainability Conference in Berlin, where I presented a paper and also participated in a cutting-edge public conference format displaying some of my PhD work on low-carbon energy transitions. The conference provided an excellent forum for knowledge exchange and discussion of today’s great challenges towards sustainability and allowed me to interact with a great number of experts in the field. This was an invaluable experience that improved the quality of my publication following the conference meaningfully.

On the occasion of Alexander von Humboldt’s 250th birthday and in light of his famous Kosmos lectures, Humboldt University of Berlin staged the KOSMOS Conference ‘Navigating the Sustainability Transformation in the 21st Century’ in Berlin at the end of August 2019. The conference not only provided an excellent interdisciplinary forum for knowledge exchange and expert discussion of today’s great challenges towards sustainability, but it also featured cutting-edge public conference formats that opened the scientific inner circle to the public and politics. I was privileged to present my research on ‘Framing ‘just transitions’: discourses as facilitators and barriers of low-carbon energy transitions in Germany and Australia’ in both the topical session on ‘Publics and ethics of sustainability’ and in an innovative bar camp format that invited interested members of the public to join the expert forum. These opportunities to present and continue the conversation afterwards with experts, practitioners, citizens and affected stakeholders alike proofed to be very fruitful exercises for translating my research and for establishing working relationships with prospective interview participants. In the aftermath of the conference, I was able to conduct several key informant interviews, all of which have contributed invaluable insights to the next chapters of my research, and which have reinforced the theoretical arguments underpinning my analysis.

The various themes that were covered during the conference had a uniting focus on navigating the sustainability transformation in the 21st century as a whole-of-society task, thereby acknowledging differing transition dynamics depending on local contexts. Regional studies were therefore well-positioned within the conference themes.
Numerous presentations, including my own, examined policy responses that have been developed by European, national and sub-national actors (regional and local) and how regional dynamics influence policy implementation. I had the opportunity to promote the RSA and RSA opportunities offered to members during all the activities of the conference. In agreement with the conference organising committee, I displayed a number of RSA flyers and resources containing information about RSA activities and journals next to the registration desk and the foyer area. These resources attracted several interested parties and I was able to share my positive experiences as a member of the RSA community face-to-face. I also promoted the RSA online through my Twitter account [@lwollers] in the lead up, during and after the event.

Both my research and my article have greatly benefitted from the opportunity to attend the KOSMOS Conference and I would like to thank the RSA once again for the kind support. I encourage everyone to have a look at the numerous RSA initiatives and opportunities offered to members!

Mattia Casula

Name of event: 4th edition of the International Conference on Public Policy (ICPP4)

The 4th edition of the International Conference of Public (ICPP4) was organized by the International Public Policy Association (IPPA), a leading international organization in the field of policy science. It aims to promote the international diffusion of knowledge on public policy, disseminating and promoting current research on public policy and its use by policy-making organizations. Regional studies are perfectly positioned within the IPPA aims, since several domestic and/or European policies require the involvement of sub-national actors (regional and local) for the policy elaboration and implementation. In this context, the ICPP4 activities represented for me a great opportunity to reinforce the theoretical arguments of my research which has a strong empirical focus on sub-national policies.

ICPP4 took place at the University of Concordia, between the 26th – 28th June, with a pre-conference session on the 25th June. During all the activities of the Conference, I had opportunity to promote the RSA and the RSA community, and opportunities offered to members. This mainly happened in the Registration Area of the ICPP4 where, in agreement with Clarisse Boyer (Project Manager at the IPPA and responsible for communications for the ICPP4), I displayed some RSA flyers with information about RSA activities and journals. The stand was situated next to the IPPA stand, and it was a very good additional opportunity for me to disseminate RSA information with people that could appreciate the complementary of the two Associations, as well think about a possible future affiliation with the RSA. The pre-conference aimed at Early Career scholars gave me ample opportunity to meet young scholars who were interested in the activities of the RSA. I also promoted the RSA activities during the panel where my article was presented. Being a panel on policy implementation, several scholars were present who focused on the implementation of specific public policies by regional actors across the world. Realising how also their academic interests aligned with the RSA’s aims, most of them were excited about the RSA opportunities that I presented and asked me for further information. In addition, several scholars were very interested in the aims of the RSA journal Territory, Politics, Governance, and in several cases, I underlined the added value that a possible submission of their article to this journal could have on their career progression. Finally, through my Twitter account [@MattiaCasula1], I posted several tweets to encourage people to have a look at the RSA initiatives and opportunities in the Exhibition Area.

Finally, both my article and my research benefited from this opportunity: Firstly, as the panel was about policy implementation arrangements and the different theoretical and methodological elements related to the organizational, structural and managerial aspects that were discussed in-depth by high qualified international scholars, I received good comments and feedback which will help me improve the theoretical argument of my paper. Secondly, the event gave me some good opportunities to discuss how to connect common trends in regional and urban studies with the solid, dated and well-established theories in the field of public policy.

Guillermo Jajamovich

The RSA Travel Grant award enabled my participation at the 2019 Meeting of the “Encontro Nacional da Associação Nacional de Pós-Graduação e Pesquisa em Planejamento Urbano e Regional” (ENANPUR) that took place in the city of Natal.
The meeting of the ENANPUR is firmly established as one of the major Latin American conferences for those doing research in the field of urban and regional studies. It also offers a valuable experience for early career researchers to present their work to a qualified audience and to develop networks with others in the field.
My motivation to attend the 2019 ENANPUR was two-fold. First, I was interested to co-organise a session aimed at examining current debates of circulating urban knowledge in Latin America. Second, I wanted to present some of the theoretical and empirical findings of my ongoing research on the contemporary urban politics, megaprojects and urban policy circulation in and from Buenos Aires.

Our session ‘Circulación de Conocimientos y políticas urbanas en América Latina” (Knowledge and urban policies circulation in Latin America´) generated great interest. Five papers were selected and one well-established scholar was invited to discuss them.
The positive feedback from participants and attendants suggested the currency of the theme need to be addressed further in the literature. A range of ideas were exchanged by participants spilling into group lunch and post-event drinks.
I am very grateful for the RSA Travel Award for funding my attendance to the event and for the opportunity to discuss my research and link up with Latin American colleagues. I helped to raise awareness of the activities of the RSA by including institutional slides at the beginning of my presentation and highlighting their support to early career researchers. Participants were also encouraged to browse the promotional material available in the room and were informed of the recent opening of the Latin American branch.

Meg Sherval

The combined New Zealand Geographical Society/Institute of Australian Geographers Conference in Auckland was an excellent conference with scholars and Research Higher Degree students attending representing many parts of the globe. I was thrilled (with the financial support of the Regional Studies Association) to have the opportunity to present my paper in a session on ‘Alternate politics’. This session attracted a large, very engaged audience and generated lots of discussion among delegates, which continued long after the session had concluded. This truly exemplified the overarching theme of the conference which was: ‘Creative conversations, constructive connections’. After my presentation, I was very pleased to have numerous people come up and ask me about the Association and its support of members and to see the promotional material and journals disappearing very quickly.

This conference also provided me with valuable opportunities to network with new colleagues from other international universities about our shared research interests, and to re-connect with colleagues from other institutions Australia-wide who were also attending. Highlights of the conference were that there was a very diverse range of keynote speakers who laid down a series of challenges for geographers in the Anthropocene. These keynotes were sponsored by highly regarded international journals such as: Antipode, Gender, Place and Culture, Progress in Human Geography and the Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography. There was also a plethora of panels, roundtables and workshops where academics, community practitioners and student delegates were able to participate in deepening their knowledge and understanding of important theoretical concepts as well as offering new perspectives on global issues that remain a challenge.

Overall, this conference was well-attended and offered me a wonderful opportunity to showcase my research and to attract the interest of other scholars working in the same and similar fields. It also allowed me to attend sessions on topics that offered insights useful to my teaching practice which is always valuable in helping keep one’s work relevant and attractive to newer generations of students. Without the support of the RSA, this would not have been possible. I am very grateful for their support and financial assistance in helping me attend this conference.

Yehya M. Serag

Urbanism @ the borders conference, Aberdeen, 5 to 7 September 2018 – Towards an appropriate regional development approach for developing the Halayb – Shalateen border region in the South East of Egypt
The city reshaped conference, Leeds, 11 to 12 September 2018 – The International co-organizer of the event, as well as a presentation in a workshop that I co-organized with title: The Politics of Urbanism: East -West Perspectives

” The generous travel grant I received from the RSA in 2018 made it possible for me to attend the Urbanism@Borders conference that was organized by the Scott Sutherland School of the Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen – Scotland. Attending this conference allowed me to share and present my research on the development initiatives of a peripheral border region in the South of Egypt. I had the chance to enter a unique network of scholars and researchers concerned with Border Urbanism.”

The first conference took place in the Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, Scotland on 5-7 September 2018. The Conference title was “Urbanism @ borders”. I participated in the conference with a research paper based on a project I was involved in. The paper dealt with the different approaches to develop a remote peripheral border region at the South East of Egypt. The name of my research is “Towards an appropriate regional development approach for developing the Halayb – Shalateen border region in the South East of Egypt”. The research is expected to be published as a book chapter in a forthcoming book to be edited by the conference organizers. This conference was a good opportunity to join the ‘Circle of Scholars’ focusing on border urbanism and I was able to provide colleagues with information about the RSA.
The second conference was hosted by the university of Leeds, England from 11-12 September 2018. I had the honor of being the international co-organizer with my colleague Dr. Gehan Selim of the University of Leeds. The conference tackled the impacts of politics on urbanism, and how cities are reshaped because of that. In addition to the organization of the event, giving a welcome note, and chairing a session I organized a joint workshop my German colleague Professor Carsten Villguth entitled “The Politics of Urbanism: East -West Perspectives” . The event succeeded in bringing together more than 80 scholars and researchers in the related fields. There is a strong possibility of taking the outcome of this event further in the form of a special edition of Journal. I was also able to promote the RSA at this conference and to let my colleagues know about the conferences, journals and funding available.

Cecilia Alda Vidal

I am grateful to the Regional Studies Association and its members for supporting my participation in the African Centre for Cities (ACC) International Urban Conference. The conference was held at the University of Cape Town on the 1st to 3rd of February 2018 and celebrated the tenth anniversary of the ACC.

My presentation was part of the session: Urban political ecologies, working infrastructures organized by Nate Millington (University of Cape Town) and Kathleen Stokes (University of Manchester). The presentation was based on a paper I co-authored with Michelle Kooy and Maria Rusca, Mapping operation and maintenance: an everyday analysis of inequalities within piped water supply in Lilongwe, Malawi (https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02723638.2017.1292664)

The presentation explored the production of different service levels within the networked water supply system in Lilongwe, Malawi. As in many other cities, in Lilongwe, a connection to the water network does not ensure that water will run when one opens the tap. While some users receive water round-the-clock, those located in the Low Income Areas of the city frequently face intermittent supply or lack of water for up to 4-5 days. To explain this situation we follow the engineers and operators of the water utility as they conduct daily operational and maintenance work and show how their routines and decisions contribute to produce a highly differentiated service. Inequalities in water distribution are produced and maintained not only through the construction of infrastructure but through its daily operation and maintenance and reflect and reproduce other inequalities within the city.

The conference was a very inspiring event that achieved to be both critical and propositional as it intended. I had the opportunity to attend excellent sessions and learn from the work other scholars are doing on southern urbanisms. The conference was very well organized, engaging, and offered plenty of opportunities to meet new friends and to discuss our work.

Chandrima Mukhopadhyay

Name of event: Annual congress of Association of European School of Planning (AESOP)

The RSA Travel Grant financially supported me to present my work on Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor as an emerging megaregion at the Association of European School of Planning Annual Congress in Lisbon, Portugal for 11-14 July in 2017. It would not have been possible for me otherwise to fly from India. The conference was attended by delegates and speakers from all over Europe and other countries, including US, India, China, and Australia. It was a great platform to present my initial work on megaregions in the global south that I am developing further in my career. It was also a great opportunity for me to meet my colleagues from AESOP, and specially, Young Academic network, whom I have been working with since 2011.

I presented a paper on ‘Evaluating Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor as an emerging megaregion in India’ at the annual congress of Association of European School of Planning (AESOP). The paper was presented at a track on regional economics and scarce resources planning. There were other presenters in the same session from UCL, University of Middlesex, Istanbul Technical University and University of Thessaly. I presented another paper on the institutionalisation of drinking water supply in Bengaluru in a track on territories under pressure: disrupted events, shattered cities and collective memories.

This years’ theme for the conference was ‘Spaces of dialogue for places of dignity: Fostering the European dimension of Planning’. The keynote speakers for the conference included Simin Davoudi from Newcastle University, Jose Viegas from International Transport Forum at OECD, Joan Clos from UN Habitat and Viriato Soromenho-Marques from University of Lisbon. Besides Simin Davoudi’s keynote speech on spatial imaginaries, Jose Viegas’ talk was very interesting as this was focused on transport sector and accessibility. Joan Clos’ concluding session speech brought insights from contemporary urban challenges in the emerging economies, highlighting the importance of planned intervention.

There were questions and discussions from the audience during both opening and closing session on the specific theme of ‘spaces of dialogue: places of dignity’. Attendees came from various Planning schools in Europe, North America (Illinois, UCLA, Portland, Ohio), Middle East (Dubai), China, South Africa and India. The conference drew over 800 attendees. The detail of tracks and papers presented are attached. The full papers will be available with open access upto two weeks after the conference to download.

Some other interesting events during the conference included announcement of Prof Gerhard Schimak as the honorary member, Prof Klaus Kunzmann’s 75th birthday celebration, and an event celebrating the legacy of late John Friedmann. Amongst other sessions, I attended the Young Academic General Assembly to speak about the Conversations in Planning Theory and Practice booklet series, which I am editor of since November 2012. I also attended a meeting on AESOP’s publication platform. The best paper prize of the conference was awarded to a final year PhD student Emma from U of Sheffield whose work is on international urbanisation in Mexico. The teaching excellence award went to a course on ‘Rethink the city: New approaches to global and local urban challenges’ run at TU Delft.

I was participant of a pre-conference one-day seminar on transformative knowledge for an era of planetary urbanisation, organised and jointly funded by COST (European cooperation in Science and Technology), Intrepid knowledge, Instituto De Ciencias Socials, and AESOP-YA network. There was a follow up roundtable on ‘Towards knowledge that changes thing: The challenges of engaged planning theory and practice’ during the conference, which was chaired by Heather Campbell from University of Sheffield and supported by RTPI.

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Grants

Apply for up to £500 (c. $660; c. €590) funding towards your travel costs (transport only) to attend a non-RSA event. This grant is a fantastic opportunity to help you towards your travel costs to present your work, network and participate at world wide non RSA events within the field.

You must be a member of the RSA when applying (non-members are encouraged to apply and join at the same time) and when the event takes place and be presenting a paper at the event in the field of regional studies (sub-national). A maximum of two applications can be awarded per round. Those who are not successful are welcome to reapply. Only one grant can be awarded every five years of membership. Please be aware that the event you wish to attend needs to be held a minimum of 4 weeks after the Travel Grant application deadline has passed. The full terms and conditions governing the grant are available in the Travel Grant Handbook. You can read reports from past RSA Travel Grant awardees in the section “Previous Awards”.

Application deadline: 16th May & 19th September 2024

Please send your applications and queries to travelgrant@regionalstudies.org

Travel Grant

Award Month

Location

Anthony Flegg

Award Month

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Miriam de Oliveira Goncalves

Award Month

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Yingyu Feng

Award Month

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Linda Wollersheim

Award Month

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Mattia Casula

Award Month

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Guillermo Jajamovich

Award Month

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Meg Sherval

Award Month

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Yehya M. Serag

Award Month

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Cecilia Alda Vidal

Award Month

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Chandrima Mukhopadhyay

Application deadline: 16th May & 19th September 2024