Dear Colleagues,

The Extremadurian Regional Science Association (AExCR) is delighted to announce the II Seminar for New Academic Researchers (SNAR) at the University of Extremadura in Plasencia (Cáceres) next October 5th. 

This meeting is mainly intended to guide and offer advice to young researchers (PhD students or graduates) in developing their research lines and consolidating their long-term careers. 

In this edition, we are again counting on the valuable presence of Geoffrey J.D. Hewings, Professor of Economics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and other senior researchers eager to share their knowledge and provide New Academic Researchers with valuable comments, ideas and advices. 

Likewise, we are proud to count with the support of RSAI, ERSA and AECR. 

The topics of interest include, but are not limited to, questions related to urban economics, regional science, spatial analysis and input-output models. 

Abstracts intended for presentation should be sent in Doc or Pdf-format, with a maximum of 500 words, including author's name(s), affiliation(s), main topic and 3-5 keywords to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. by August 20th 2018.

Deadlines:

Submission of abstracts:  20^th August 2018

Notification of acceptance:  5^th September 2018

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact me (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)! 

More information about the Seminar (exact location of the Seminar Venue, accommodation options, tourist info, etc.) will be coming soon!

Come to check it out and spread the word!  There are no fees for participants of the Seminar! 

Looking forward to seeing you soon, in Plasencia (Cáceres).

Best, 

Alberto Franco Solís

Topic: Building resilient cities in the shrinking paradigm: A UK and China comparison using new sources of big data

Funding eligibility: Funding is available for UK residents (fees + stipend) and EU residents (fees only).

Application closing date: August 15, 2018

Project description: Urban shrinkage is a common phenomenon throughout the world despite urbanisation being a well-established trend. With increasing globalisation, cities in both developed and developing counties experience economic downturn, population decline, de-urbanisation. Reasons and solutions of urban shrinkage have been discussed and documented extensively for developed countries (e.g. UK, US, Germany, and Japan). However, deeper understanding of urban shrinkage issues and how to resolve them in the developing world, especially in China with a large number of fast growing cities, is still lacking. Insights from developed countries could be learned in order to better address the challenges for building resilience into shrinking cities of the developing world. Northeast China provinces, including Liaoning, Jilin, and Heilongjiang, now known as the “rust belt” in China, have topped the chart in the number of shrinking cities due to resource depletion, deindustrialization, and demographic changes. Similarly, most of the top UK declining cities are in the north of England as a strong indication of the North-South divide. Core cities of North England, such as Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield and Newcastle, share some common characteristics with their counterpart in Northeast China in terms of industrial legacy, aging population, and loss of growth power to support surrounding areas. Insights could be gained for those cities in both countries by a comparative study of their resilience to internal and external changes.

With a focus on Northeast China cities, this project seek to 1) identify and better understand the spatial, economic and social issues of shrinking cities and the underpinning mechanisms in relation to other Chinese cities, and 2) design adaptive strategies to build resilience into these cities through a comparative study of urban shrinkage in China and UK. This project will expand the existing research by combining the spatial, economic and social dimensions of human mobility and urban interactions and considering the interplay of all three dimensions in defining a multidimensional measurement and assessment of urban resilience. Furthermore, this project will promote the collaboration between the UoB research team and the Chinese stakeholders in order to incorporate local interests and benefit decision-makers with both general and place-based strategies in policy-making.

This project will facilitate the identification and acquisition of various traditional and novel sources of data, which can be leveraged them to gain better insights by leading-edge big data analytics and AI techniques. The substantive and methodological knowledge that this PhD project will generate will directly contribute to the UK Industrial Strategy Grant Challenge of Artificial Economy and the Data Economy as well as on the Key Policies on Infrastructure and Places. Moreover, this PhD project will contribute to the research objectives of the Alan Turing Institute, which the University of Birmingham recently joined. The latter signifies the broader recognition of AI and the Data Economy as a research priority for the University of Birmingham.

Qualification: Applicants should hold a minimum of a UK Honours Degree at 2:1 level or equivalent in subjects such as Geoinformatics, GIScience/Geocompuation, Transport Planning, Civil Engineering, Geography, Environmental Science, Computer/Data Science or Urban Planning. Applicants with skills in quantitative modelling or Python/R programming are preferred.

For further details: Please contact Dr Zhaoya Gong (Birmingham):

·         Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

·         Telephone: +44(0)1214144240

·         Supervisory panel: Dr Zhaoya Gong (Birmingham); Dr Emmanouil Tranos (Birmingham)

Application procedure: http://www.dream-cdt.ac.uk/studying/application/

PhD programme on Develpoment, Societies &Territories (Edition 2018/19 – 2020/21): Appliances are open until 24th August

https://www.utad.pt/estudar/en/cursos/development-societies-territories/

Join us, a dynamic program, which seeks to build bridges between the "big science" and the solutions that we need for sustainable and inclusive development of territories, organizations and people. Cultivating interdisciplinary approaches to develop researchers and professionals with creative thought able to innovate "outside the box". More information in the attached brochure. The calendar of the school year of first year of the edition 2018/19-2020/21 runs  between January and July of 2019,

Lívia Madureira

(p/Direção DeST)

https://www.facebook.com/dout.DST/

We are pleased to inform you that a new issue of the Regional Statistics has been released and now it’s avaiable online.

REGIONAL STATISTICS, 2017, VOL 7, No 2.

STUDIES

Marcos Álvarez-Díaz–Beatrice D’Hombres–Claudia Ghisetti: Modelling inter- and intra-regional tourism flows in Spain – a spatial econometric approach https://doi.org/110.15196/RS070205

http://www.ksh.hu/docs/hun/xftp/terstat/2017/rs070205.pdf

Gerardo Gallo–Armando Montanari: Coastal and marine tourism: the employment system in Northern Latium at the time of the economic crisis https://doi.org/110.15196/RS070204

http://www.ksh.hu/docs/hun/xftp/terstat/2017/rs070204.pdf

Ariel Mitev–Anna Irimiás–Gábor Michalkó–Mariangela Franch: “Mind the scenery!” Landscape depiction and the travel intentions of Game of Thrones fans: some insights for DMOs https://doi.org/110.15196/RS070201

http://www.ksh.hu/docs/hun/xftp/terstat/2017/rs070201.pdf

Anton Kasagranda–Daniel Gurňák–Katarína Danielová:Congress tourism and fair tourism of Slovakia – quantification, spatial differentiation, and classification https://doi.org/110.15196//RS070206

http://www.ksh.hu/docs/hun/xftp/terstat/2017/rs070206.pdf

Lajos Bálint–Zoltán Csányi–Máté Farkas–Hajnalka Hluchány–Áron Kincses: International migration and official migration statistics in Hungary https://doi.org/110.15196//RS070203

http://www.ksh.hu/docs/hun/xftp/terstat/2017/rs070203.pdf

Ádám Páthy:Types of development paths and the hierarchy of the regional centres of Central and Eastern Europe https://doi.org/110.15196//RS070202

http://www.ksh.hu/docs/hun/xftp/terstat/2017/rs070202.pdf

Mariann Szabó: Spatial distribution of the top 500 companies on regional and county levels in Hungary – a repeated analysis https://doi.org/110.15196//RS070208

http://www.ksh.hu/docs/hun/xftp/terstat/2017/rs070208.pdf

Izabella Szakálné Kanó–Éva Kazemi-Sánta– Imre Lengyel: Territorial distribution of highly educated individuals in Hungary after 1990 https://doi.org/110.15196//RS070209

http://www.ksh.hu/docs/hun/xftp/terstat/2017/rs070209.pdf

Zoltán Bertus: Investigating the background of radical right-wing mobilization in Hungary with regional statistical methods https://doi.org/110.15196//RS070207

http://www.ksh.hu/docs/hun/xftp/terstat/2017/rs070207.pdf

RSAI has the great pleasure to announce that the jury consisting of  Janice Madden, Carlos Azzoni and Erik Verhoef chose the article "Network proximity in the geography of research collaboration" by Laurent R. Bergé,  published in Volume 94, Issue 4, Vovember 2017, Pages: 785-815 as the winner of the Martin Beckmann Prize as the best paper published in Papers in Regional Science in 2017.

Motivation:

Through an elegant scientific approach, the paper replies to the questions of how network proximity influences the structure of inter-regional collaborations and how it interacts with geography. A new, theoretically grounded, measure of inter-regional network proximity is introduced.

The paper achieves interesting results, revealing that inter-regional network proximity is important in determining future collaborations but its effect is mediated by geography. Most importantly, a clear substitution pattern is revealed showing that network proximity mainly benefits international collaborations.

Based on the originality of the interest in the topic, and the important results achieved, the jury concluded that the paper was the best published one in 2017.

Many congratulations to Laurent R. Bergé!

Call for abstracts

Interested in presenting your work in one of the thirty conference sessions? The call for abstract is now open.

In order for you to prepare your abstract, you find more information about abstract submission here. The online abstract submission system is open from 30 April to 23 July 2018 (the abstract submission deadline has been extended from 4 to 23 July). All other sessions are open to voluntary contributions.

Proceed to abstract submission

Type of submission

There are three different types of contributions you can choose from within this system:

• Abstract: please select a first and second session of your choice so we can forward your abstract to the session of your 2nd choice  in case your abstract will be rejected by the host of your preferred session.
• Poster abstract: if you wish to submit an abstract which you would like to present as a poster during the conference. Separate poster sessions will be organised. In order to cluster the posters thematically, we ask you to select the session into which your poster fits best.
• Invited speaker abstract: if you were personally invited to present your abstract by the session host(s). Please do submit your abstract too, if you would like your abstract to appear in the book of abstracts. If you will present in a session which only allows invited speakers to present, you will find this session in the Sessions which only allow invited speakers section selection.

Author guidelines

We kindly request you to follow the following guidelines for your abstract submission:

• Document type: Word 
• Text font: Verdana
• Font size: 10
• Maximum number of words: 300
• Maximum amount of keywords: 5
• Order of presented information:
  • Title
  • Presenting author
  • Other authors
  • Primary affiliation
  • Abstract text (maximum 300 words)
  • Keywords

Abstract submission

To submit your abstract for review, please fill in the abstract submission form. When you click on this link, you will first be asked to create an 'author account'. Once you created this account, you can submit your abstract. The author account is needed for communication purposes.

Proceed to abstract submission

http://www.espconference.org/latinamerica2018/wiki/278829/call-for-abstracts

One scientific fellowship is available at the Research Unit on Governance, Competitiveness and Public Policies – GOVCOPP UID/ CPO/ 4058, in the research group on Systems for Decision Support (SDS), at the University of Aveiro, Portugal, financed by FCT/MCTES, through national funds (PIDDAC), and, co-financed by FEDER through the Operational Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalisation (POCI).
Scientific Areas: Economics; Urban and Regional Planning; Operations Research and other social sciences.
Admission requirements:
1. The candidate must have a Master degree either in Economics, Urban and Regional Planning, Operations Research or in other social sciences.
2. Candidates with Master degree in other fields will be admitted if they demonstrate a solid research record in the above-mentioned scientific areas.
3. The candidate must have experience in scientific research, preferably supported by authored or co-authored international publications.
4. The candidate must demonstrate an excellent command of reading, listening, speaking and writing in English.
5. Preference will be given to candidates that:
a. have working experience in multidisciplinary research projects;
b. have working experience in spatial quantitative analysis and in producing composite indicators;
c. are continuing their academic studies.
Job description: This scientific fellow is expected to contribute significantly to the overall goals and objectives of the GOVCOPP and to the specific goals of the SDS research group, namely the management of the Decision Support Lab (DS - Lab), which makes available online spatial composite indicators and some decision support tools (prototype versions) produced by GOVCOPP researchers.
In particular, the fellow is expected to:
1. Significantly contribute to the implementation of the “Regional Decision Support System” strategic action subprogram of the GOVCOPP.
2. Collaborate in the DS - Lab management, namely to:
a. identify potential indicators to be included in the DS - Lab (within the research projects developed and under development in the GOVCOPP),
b. work with the responsible researchers in the production of indicators and the corresponding methodological reports,
c. ensure the updating of the indicators included.
3. Assist the coordinator of the SDS research group in the group’s coordination tasks.
4. Contribute to the funding and internationalization of the SDS research group, helping identify relevant project calls and actively promoting and supporting the process of application to these calls.
5. Collaborate with members of the Research Unit, particularly of the SDS research group, in the writing of high-level publication outputs, especially articles for publication in peer-reviewed journals.
Legislation and regulations: Scientific Research Fellowship Statute-Law (Decree 40/2004, 18th of August); FCT, I.P. Fellowships Regulation approved by Regulation 234/2012 of 25 June, amended by Regulation 326/2013 of 27 August 2013 in force ( www.fct.pt/apoios/bolsas/docs/RegulamentoBolsasFCT2015.pdf), and Regulation for Advanced Training and Qualification of Human Resources 2011 and the Scientific Research Fellowship Regulation of the University of Aveiro – Regulation Nº.341/2011, Diário da República, 2nd series, nº. 98, 20th of May.
Workplace: The work will be developed at the facilities of the Unit on Governance, Competitiveness and Public Policies, University of Aveiro, in the Department of Social, Political and Territorial Sciences.
Duration of the grant: This is a 4 months limited term non-tenure accruing position. The grant will predictably start on September 1st 2018, eventually renewable, contingent on satisfactory performance and on funding availability.
Monthly allowance:
The amount of the grant corresponds to 980 € per month plus social security according to the scholarships value table of FCT, I.P. in the country (www.fct.pt/apoios/bolsas/valores), with payments made monthly by check or bank transfer. The stipend value is free from taxation.
Methods of selection: The evaluation criteria and methods shall be as follows, with a maximum of 100 points:
1. Adequacy of the academic profile to GOVCOPP and research group Systems for Decision Support (SDS) goals and strategic guidelines (maximum of 30 points);
2. Publication record (maximum of 15 points);
3. Working experience in multidisciplinary research projects and on spatial quantitative analysis (maximum of 35 points);
4. Working experience in geographical information systems and on statistical analysis software’s (maximum of 20 points).
After the curricula evaluation, the Jury can select a maximum of three applicants, with the highest awarded points, for an interview, which may be carried out via a video-conferencing platform. This interview, if performed, will grant the selected applicants with extra points (maximum of 100 points).
The Jury reserves the right to consider the applications to be below the desirable quality levels, and suggest closing this call without any selected applicant.
Members of the Jury: Anabela Botelho Veloso (chair); João Lourenço Marques; Mara Madaleno and as substitute members, Marlene Amorim and Carlos Rodrigues.
Form of advertising/notification of results:
The final evaluation results will be publicized through an alphabetical list, which will be posted in a visible and public place of GOVCOPP, being the applicants notified by email.
Deadlines: This call for applications is open from 16th to 27th July 2018, till 5 p.m.
Application procedure: Applications must contain the following documents:
1. Curriculum vitae;
2. Copy of the academic degrees certificates;
3. Motivation letter;
4. A sample copy of the candidate’s research (e.g. a journal article or other publication).
Applications should be sent via e-mail to the following address: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
University of Aveiro, 29th June 2018

http://www.eracareers.pt/opportunities/index.aspx?task=global&jobId=101521

Review of Regional Research: Call for a special issue on "Natural Disasters and the Economy"

Guest editors: Alessandra Faggian and Marco Modica, The Gran Sasso Science Institute (GSSI), L’Aquila, (Italy)

Deadline: May 31, 2019
Submissions online at: https://www.editorialmanager.com/jfre/default.aspx

The Call can be found on https://www.editorialmanager.com/jfre/default.aspx

The Regional Science Association British and Irish Section awards, on an annual basis, the Moss Madden Memorial Medal to the member(s) of the Section who author the best article on regional science published in a particular calendar year. The jury is now beginning the search for the winner of the Moss Madden Medal for 2017.

We would be grateful if members of the section would send nominations for the 2017 Medal. Members should note that the Medal is awarded to the member or members of the Section that have written the article of greatest distinction published in any area of Regional Science in any journal during 2017.  Nominators should provide a reference to the article.  Also, self nominations are allowed.

Nominations can be sent to Professor Kim Swales, Fraser of Allander Institute, Strathclyde Business School at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.