Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to inform you that the call for hosting the 2019 AESOP Congress is now open.

All institutional AESOP Members are warmly encouraged to apply.

The deadline for the submission of the bids is 31st January 2017.

The decision will be made by the Council of Representatives at the meeting which will take place in March 2017 in Warsaw.

The candidates will be kindly asked to prepare a 10-minute presentation for the Council of Representatives.

The selected host will be asked to present the concept of the Congress to the General Assembly, which will take place during the AESOP Congress in Lisbon (11-14 July 2017) and during the AESOP Congress in Gothenburg, which will take place in July 2018 (see further information below).


With my best regards,

Paulo Pinho

AESOP Congress Organisation Guidelines

General rules of applying for the organisation of an AESOP event:

1. Candidate institutions should send in their proposals to the AESOP Secretariat General (secretariat(at)aesop-planning.eu) in the form of a brief note of 4 to 8 pages by the given deadline.
2. The Council of Representatives of the AESOP, at the meeting following the proposal submission deadline, will examine the proposals and vote to select the future host.
3. Each candidate will be given a 10-minute time slot in the agenda of the Council of Representatives meeting to present the proposal. It is strongly recommended that the candidates use this opportunity to address the Representatives directly. If a candidate institution does not choose to present its proposal, it may settle for a paper submission or ask a member of the Council to do the presentation.

Information the candidates should provide:

1. Information about the University and School/Department/Faculty:

a)     the profile of the University and the School/Department/Faculty,

b)     the reasons for which the School/Department/Faculty wishes to organize the event,

c)     the organisational capacity of the University and School/Department/Faculty to handle the event,

d)     the financial capability of the University and the School/Department/Faculty to support the event, as it is to be noted that:

i)       despite collecting the event entrance fees, certain payments may have to be made very early during the preparation process before the registration is open,

ii)      the AESOP is not able to provide financial support in a case that the fees cover less than 100% of the budget,

iii)     the host is responsible for local sponsorship and support.

2. Information about the location:

a)     accessibility and accommodation capacity of the location,

b)     attractiveness of the location from the perspective of planners,

c)     estimated cost of attending the event for participants (average accommodation, transport, etc.).

3. Information about the proposed Congress topic:
The congress topic should be both comprehensive and pertinent to contemporary planning issues. A short statement introducing the theme is expected.

The recent AESOP congresses had the following topics:

a)     2004: Metropolitan Planning and Environmental Issues (Grenoble)

b)     2005: The Dream for a Greater Europe (Vienna)

c)     2006: Diversity and Multiplicity (World Planning Schools Congress, Mexico),

d)     2007: Planning for the Risk Society (Naples)

e)     2008: Bridging the divide: Celebrating he City (joint AESOP-ACSP Congress, Chicago),

f)      2009: Why Can't the Future be More Like the Past? (Liverpool)

g)     2010: Space is Luxury! (Helsinki)

h)     2011: Planning in an Era of Global (Un)Certainty and Transformation (World Planning Schools Congress, Perth)

i)       2012: Planning to Achieve/Planning to Avoid (Ankara)

j)       2013: Planning for Resilient Cities and Regions (joint AESOP-ACSP Congress, Dublin),

k)     2014: From Control to Co-Evolution (Utrecht-Delft)

l)       2015: Definite Space – Fuzzy Responsibility (Prague)

m)    2016: Global Crisis, Planning and Challenges to Spatial Justice in the North and in the South (World Planning Schools Congress, Rio de Janeiro)

n)     2017: Spaces of Dialog for Places of Dignity: Fostering the European Dimension of Planning

4. Information about the proposed topic, format and location of the AESOP PhD Workshop. The PhD Workshop can be co-organised by another institution, which is also an AESOP member.

Candidate institutions need to be aware that:

1. The AESOP Congresses normally attract an audience of 500-800 people, and take place in the first half of July each year.
2. Recently more than 1.000 abstracts have been submitted for a congress.
3. The selected candidate will be asked to sign a contract with the AESOP, including full details of the organization of the congress. Part of the contract states that the hosting institution will forward to the AESOP 10% of the congress fees, after the Congress. Generic contract is available here. Generic contract for PhD Workshop is available here.
4. The selected candidate will have to form a Local Organizing Committee and their representative will have to participate in several AESOP meetings two years year before and one year after the Congress (for transfer of experience).
5. The selected candidate will have to secure with their institution the availability of the venue and support of the institution’s administration.
6. The selected candidate will have to organise PhD Workshop, on a topic which is related to the theme of the Congress. The candidate institution has to be aware that AESOP is able to provide financial support only to the limited extent.

The recent AESOP PhD Workshops took place in:

a)     2004: Aix en Provence, France

b)     2005: Vienna, Austria

c)     2006: Bristol, UK

d)     2007: Paestum/Naples, Italy

e)     2008: Jotunheimen National Park, Norway

f)      2009: Manchester, UK

g)     2010: Seili Island, Finland

h)     2011: Kostelec nad Czernymi Lesy, Czech Republic

i)       2012: Izmir, Turkey

j)       2013: Belfast, Ireland

k)     2014: Delft, Netherlands

l)       2015: High Tatra, Slovakia

m)     2016: Leuven, Belgium

Practical information:
1. Applications are to be sent by email to the AESOP Secretariat General at secretariat(at)aesop-planning.eu
2. Accepted file formats:
        a)     text files: .docx, .doc, .rtf, .pdf
        b)     image files: .jpg, .gif, .png, .bmp, .tiff, .pdf
        c)     video files: .mpeg, .mpg, .mpe, .mov, .wmv
3. The application will be included in the materials for the Council of Representatives meeting in the form sent to the Secretariat General (file).
4. In case the files are extremely large it is strongly recommended to send compressed files (.zip).