Research projects

USI members involved: Greet De Block, Joris Beckers, Milena Belloni, Hilde Greefs, Stijn Oosterlynck​

Coordinated by: University of Antwerp

Dates: 2025-2028

Funded by: Flemish Government BOF projects

Abstract:

The urbanisation beyond gravitation: an interdisciplinary approach to rural-urban relations project aims to design and corroborate a new approach to analyse and conceptualise urbanisation that is attuned to dynamic rural-urban relations. Current approaches are determined by an urban and rationalist bias, assuming the gravitational pull of the city, and are undifferentiated in how to relate transport connections to actual mobility practices and urbanisation. Models assume that access to transport equals more job opportunities, equals the choice to use transport, and thus results in an increase of mobility flows, leading in turn to urbanisation. However, decisions to stay put in a rural village or to move to the city were, and are, far more complex than gravitational push-pull forces and rational choice models would predict. Hence, current approaches to urbanisation have weak empirical validity, with a low degree of explanation, especially for sprawled, highly networked areas.

The project will contribute a geographic network analysis of relations between mobility and urbanisation, through dynamic and multi-directional networked movement. History and sociology will explain the differentiated relations between commuting, migration, and urbanisation, through analysing socio-economic dynamics and multiple logics that inform mobility practices and, indeed the choice to stay in place or migrate. The new approach defines urbanisation by networked mobility practices, rather than by preconceived hierarchies between places and individual choices.

Website: www.researchportal.be/en/project/urbanisation-beyond-gravitation-interdisciplinary-approach-rural-urban-relations

USI members involved: Wouter Verheyen, Pieter Cools​

Coordinated by: University of Antwerp

Dates: 2025-2028

Funded by: Driving Urban Transitions European Partnership, co-funded by the European Union and Flemish Research Foundation (FWO)

Abstract:

SMART-AGE aims to contribute to a modal shift in urban mobility among older adults. Currently, interventions promoting active mobility and sustainable transport are insufficiently aligned with the capabilities, needs and preferences of older adults, meaning that car reduction policies risk increasing their social isolation. SMART-AGE addresses the mobility barriers faced by older adults, and in doing so promotes a universal design for accessible urban spaces and services.

Older adults are at the centre of the project – their voices help to understand the multi-faceted factors that contribute to their car dependency and the conditions that would help them switch to shared mobility. Based on this understanding, the project then provides recommendations and a toolbox for inclusive policy making to improve accessibility for older adults. It also looks for opportunities to better align mobility supply and demand through exploring market practices in mobility supply and the difficulties providers face when catering to the needs of this age group.

Website: smart-age.eu

USI members involved: Greet De Block, Stijn Oosterlynck​

Coordinated by: TU Delft

Dates: 2024-2026

Funded by: Driving Urban Transitions European Partnership, co-funded by the European Union and Flemish Research Foundation (FWO)

Abstract:

InPUT focuses on extending the 15-minute city concept to typically low-density peri-urban areas. In these areas, spatial morphologies and networks are not necessarily ready to receive 15-minute city models, and governments and communities are not necessarily aligned with their principles. However, interventions to improve quality of life, proximity and accessibility are sorely needed.

InPUT analyses distinct peri-urban types and envisions place-specific 15-minute settings for those diverse contexts. It considers spatial aspects, such as transit-oriented development, functions and networks, but advances beyond that to include governance capacities, which influence investments and priorities, and the aspirations of inhabitants. Based on a selection of peri-urban areas in four countries, InPUT establishes, together with local stakeholders, a typological catalogue of functional arrangements, mobility networks, governance dynamics and community experiences. That knowledge is then used to co-design place-appropriate spatial visions and strategic transformations enabling 15-minute settings.

Website: projectinput.org

USI members involved: Bert De Munck, Jouke Verlinden, Marc Jacobs, Annick Schramme, Esther van Zimmeren​

Coordinated by: University of Antwerp

Dates: 2023-2027

Funded by: Flemish Research Foundation (FWO) Strategic Basic Research (SBO)

Abstract:

Crafting Futures examines and transforms the assessment and validation mechanisms by which crafts knowledge and know-how (CKK) is evaluated, to enhance its value added for economy and society in Flanders. Crafts are resources for competitiveness, innovation, sustainable development and quality of life, contributing to SDG4, 8 and 11. Yet the services and tools needed to foster the recognition of the value of CKK currently hamper the full utilisation of its economic and societal potential, as they mostly reduce CKK to cultural heritage. Crafting Futures’ main objectives are to 1) understand the shortcomings of the assessment and validation mechanisms and tools and 2) transform the "repertoires of evaluation" and the related validation tools. This is achieved by interdisciplinary urban co-creative labs to 1) map the controversies around the assessment and validation of CKK in ecosystems where crafts people collaborate with other professionals (formal education and maker spaces); 2) produce a new scientific toolbox and conceptual framework that enables future scientists to approach CKK beyond its heritage value and assess and validate its economic and societal value across disciplines; 3) co-create formats and tools which enable craftspeople and stakeholders such as educators and entrepreneurs to valorise CKK more effectively and productively (business models, certificates, …), 4) design recommendations and plans for urban and regional governments, which optimise CKK's integration and impact in economy and society (professional qualifications, property protection, …), and 5) valorise and sustain these tools for the future through a plan for a crafts council Flanders, which would also represent crafts people in future policy making processes.

Website: www.craftingfutures.be

USI members involved: Bert De Munck, Marc Jacobs, Annick Schramme, Jouke Verlinden​

Coordinated by: University of Antwerp

Dates: 2023-2027

Funded by: European Commission Horizon Europe Cluster 2

Abstract:

In an age of mass production, the delicate and detailed work of craft objects is more appreciated than ever. However, preservation hinges on the transmission of traditional crafts knowledge. In this context, Tracks4Crafts aligns traditional crafts with a future-oriented heritage approach. Currently, the tools, formats and instruments needed to foster the transmission and employment of traditional crafts knowledge are lagging behind. As such, the project creates spaces for collaboration (hi-tech environments, including fab labs) and develops new digital technologies that enhance and transform transmission knowledge. The project also produces tools and instruments that enable capturing and optimising the value of the produced knowledge (business modelling, certification and property protection).

Website: tracks4crafts.eu 

USI members involved: Josefien van Olmen, Lukar Thornton, Hilde Bastiaens​

Coordinated by: University of Antwerp

Dates: 2024-2027

Funded by: European Commission, Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases (GACD) Healthy Cities Research Programme

Abstract:

CityMove aims to support cities in Europe, Africa and Latin America with interventions and policies to increase physical activity amongst urban populations. Physical activity is key for reducing the risk of non-communicable diseases, such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes, which are a major cause of death globally. Environmental factors and healthy lifestyle choices can lead to less sedentary lifestyles, reducing the risk of such diseases.

The project studies the impact of 13 interventions designed to increase physical activity amongst the most vulnerable and least active groups in cities in Belgium, Netherlands, Slovenia, Peru, Colombia and Uganda. It aims to adapt the Global Action Plan on Physical Activity to the urban context and develop a framework to evaluate the transferability and scalability of the interventions studied.

The interventions being implemented and studied in Antwerp, in collaboration with the Sports Department of the City of Antwerp, include the Brave Move project to reduce street intimidation and create more opportunities in public spaces for exercise for teenage girls, the health kiosk in Borgerhout to provide information and signposting to health services, and the exercise on prescription programme to support people with health risks to be active using personalised exercise plans and professional guidance. 

Website: citymove.info

USI members involved: Wouter Van Dooren, Tom Coppens, Pascal Gielen, Esther Van Zimmeren

Coordinated by: Tilburg University

Dates: 2022-2025

Funded by: JPI Urban Europe: ERA-NET Cofund Urban Transformation

Abstract:

Polarisation threatens the transformative capacity of cities at a time when collective plans for a more sustainable and resilient urban future are needed. The typical answer to polarisation has been to strengthen consensus building among stakeholders, but such approaches are known to lead to alienation, tensions with existing democratic institutions, and an increasing gap with legal practice. CONTRA explores how institutionalising productive conflict can increase the transformative capacity needed in the transition towards more sustainable cities.

Through a comparative study of urban planning law and practices focused on climate transition in 4 countries (Belgium; Netherlands; Norway and Poland), the project studies how conflict is handled and investigates the connection with political and legal institutions to determine whether conflict is suppressed or actively used for sustainable transformation. It also tests new ways to handle conflict. The project involves close collaboration with Nieuwstedelijk, City of Genk and De Werkvennootschap to experiment, co-design and implement the research.

CONTRA pioneers a new model of living labs (Drama Labs) that uses theatre-based methods to experiment with productive conflict. Combining empirical investigations with action research through the Drama Labs, CONTRA builds capacities for urban transformation grounded in urban liveability, inclusivity, and active community engagement, as well as improving non-physical infrastructure such as governance and regulatory processes. 

Website: conflictintransformations.eu

USI members involved: Tom Coppens, Ann Crabbé, Wouter Van Dooren​

Dates: 2021-2025

Funded by: Flemish Research Foundation (FWO) Strategic Basic Research (SBO)

Abstract:

The InnoFiNS research project starts from the observation that Flemish cities and municipalities have an important role to play in climate adaptation and mitigation strategies. More specifically, they can develop nature-based solutions (NBS) with green, blue and hybrid urban infrastructure that approach climate change in an integrated, systemic and sustainable way. However, public budgets are often insufficient, while a lot of private investment funds are available. NBS projects admittedly have very high initial costs and have very diffuse long-term benefits that are not easily translated into revenue streams. Therefore, there is a need for new revenue models that can activate private investment. The InnoFiNS project brings researchers from various disciplines together with stakeholders and users around specific cases in four urban living labs in Genk, Turnhout, South-West Flanders and Antwerp. It develops five multidisciplinary lines of enquiry (economic, governance, legal, social, and planning and design), ensuring a holistic and critical approach to developing new business cases. In this way, the project develop an inter- and transdisciplinary understanding of alternative financing of nature-based solutions through close interaction between experts, practitioners and researchers from different disciplines.

Website: uantwerpen.be/innofins

USI members involved: Greet De Block, Ann Verhetsel, Stijn Oosterlynck, Thomas Vanoutrive​

Coordinated by: University of Antwerp

Dates: 2021-2025

Funded by: European Commission, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Innovative Training Network

Abstract:

The project focuses on Transit Oriented Development (TOD), conceiving public transport as a backbone for socially Inclusive and environmentally Sustainable urbanisation in European Rural-Urban Regions (RURs). The overall objective is to go beyond the urban focus and undifferentiated, model-based approach of current TOD research and practice, and extend TOD to RURs with a context-based approach. If Europe is to make a transition to inclusive and sustainable urbanisation, this extension of TOD is essential, as most Europeans live in RURs, not just in urban cores.

Yet, current TOD approaches are at odds with mobility-urbanisation relations in RURs, generating socio-environmental side-effects and risks. TOD-IS-RUR sets up an interdisciplinary, international and intersectoral network to analyse, develop and test-case innovative context-based approaches by bringing in expertise from urban studies (i.e. mobility studies; landscape research and design; transport justice, planning and geography; social and historical geography; social innovation; Science & Technology Studies (STS); environmental history). The research and training prepares a new generation of highly-skilled professionals able to meet the scientific and societal challenge of countering urban sprawl in the spatial contexts where most Europeans live, and implement inclusive and sustainable planning schemes for RURs. In so doing, TOD-IS-RUR creates innovative, much-needed approaches, to advance agendas in line with Smart, Green & Integrated transport (SC4); Inclusive, Innovative & Reflective Societies (SC6); and UN Sustainable Development Goal 11 Sustainable Cities and Communities.

Website: www.todisrur.eu

USI members involved: Stijn Oosterlynck, Noel Clycq​

Coordinated by: University of Antwerp

Dates: 2021-2024

Funded by: European Commission, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Innovative Training Network

Abstract:

Over the last decade, liberal democracies in Europe have been shaken to their core by the rise of national populisms. This puts strong pressure on all forms of solidarity, especially as they cross ethnic-cultural boundaries. The increasingly successful capture of the notion of solidarity by radical right, anti-liberal democratic forces is testimony to this. The challenge for European democracies is to identify the conditions under which solidarities in diversity can be nurtured.

To address this urgent challenge, SOLiDi develops a training and research program that is focused on how to generate solidarities across cultural boundaries, taking the proximity of citizens with different ethnic-cultural backgrounds in specific places and the practices they engage in as starting point.

The aim is to articulate a new vision on solidarity adapted to superdiverse societies and to better equip professionals and organisations with adequate and innovative tools for facilitating solidarity in diversity. SOLiDi’s aims are in line with SDG10 “Reduced Inequalities” and Societal Challenge 6 ‘Europe in a changing world - Inclusive, innovative and reflective societies’.

Website: www.solidi.eu

USI members involved: Bert De Munck, Stijn Oosterlynck​

Coordinated by: University of Antwerp

Dates: 2020-2024

Funded by:  Flemish Research Foundation (FWO) Strategic Basic Research (SBO)

Abstract:

Soligion sets out to produce better forms of collaboration and more complementary forms of solidarity between faith-based (including humanistic) organisations (FBOs) and secular welfare state institutions (WSIs). It does so by 1) examining the dynamic interaction between FBOs and WSIs in an interdisciplinary way and through a multi-method approach and 2) the co-creation by both FBOs and WSIs of new practices of solidarity and social support. The interdisciplinary and multi-method approach serves to reveal the potentialities and frictions of FBOs in relation to the political standards of secular WSIs and transcend essentialist and dichotomous views so as to understand existing forms of negotiation and mutual adaptation.

The project maps the FBOs active in the field of local social support in five cities, examines the interaction between FBOs and WSIs from an historical and political-philosophical angle, and creates shared insights as well as new procedures and practices through action research. Building on this, the process of co-creation involves two related working groups, one which builds a concept and pilot for a dynamic and interactive social map and a second which conceives educational and training modules for volunteers and social workers, local employees (of WSIs) and policy makers, instructors and mentors involved in the integration of newcomers, and future professional social workers.

Website: www.soligion.be

USI members involved: Iolanda Bianchi, Stijn Oosterlynck

Coordinated by: University of Antwerp

Dates: 2023-2025

Funded by: European Commission Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Postdoctoral Fellowship

Abstract:

Increasingly more cities in the European Union are adopting co-production schemes based on the paradigm of the commons. Some examples include Bologna, Ghent and Barcelona. These cities aim to redistribute decision-making power over essential services and resources for collective well-being to citizens and encourage self-management of communities. However, there is still little scientific knowledge available on these schemes. The COMMONCITY project aims to increase this knowledge by conducting a comparative analysis of policy models, challenges and impacts on urban democracy in the pioneering cities of Barcelona, Bologna and Ghent. The project uses a co-production-based approach to data collection and analysis, which provides unique empirical data on the functioning and democratic impact of these schemes. The results contribute to the scientific debate on urban studies, urban democracy, urban governance and urban participation. Policy recommendations are also made to improve the implementation and functioning of these schemes.

Website: cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101110202