Current ongoing research projects

The following research projects are currently being carried out at the Department of Regional Planning:

Integrative development of a fair balance of interests between city, suburbs, and rural areas (ReGerecht)

Integrative development of a fair balance of interests between city, suburbs, and rural areas (ReGerecht)

 

Principal investigator at BTU:  Prof. Dr. Ludger Gailing

Project team: Kamil Bembnista, Eva Eichenauer

Consortium partners: Institut für Landes- und Stadtentwicklungsforschung gGmbH für die ILS Research gGmbH (Koordination), Leibniz-Zentrum für Agrarlandschaftsforschung (Koordination), CODIP TU Dresden (Center for Open Digital Innovation and Participation), Helmholtz-Zentrum für Umweltforschung (UFZ), Landeshauptstadt Schwerin, Amt für Raumordnung und Landesplanung Westmecklenburg, Landgesellschaft Mecklenburg-Vorpommern mbH

Funding organization: Federal Ministry for Research and Education (BMBF)

Duration: 09/2018 - 03/2025

Link of project website: https://regerecht.de

Link of support measures website:  https://www.zukunftsstadt-stadtlandplus.de/

The joint research project “ReGerecht” funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research aims at developing and implementing solutions for a fair balance of interests between city, suburbs, and rural areas. It seeks to answer two core questions: How do regional land use conflicts arise? And: How can just solutions for these land use conflicts be found?

As part of a project consortium of seven scientific and practice partners, the BTU focuses on problems of regional infrastructures, mainly looking at the energy-infrastructure nexus and urban-rural relationships. It analyses spatial and socio-technical constellations with respect to informal institutions and questions of spatial justice and infrastructural criticality. The work package positions itself in international theoretical debates on “energy justice”, “spatial justice” and “infrastructural justice”. The joint research project is coordinated by the Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF) in Müncheberg.

Linking Borderlands: Dynamics of border-regional peripheries

BMBF-Project „Linking Borderlands: Dynamics of border-regional peripheries“

Project management at the BTU: Prof. Dr. Ludger Gailing

Thematic focus"Policy Borderlands":  Martin Reents, Dr. Peter Ulrich (associate researcher)

Thematic focus "Energy Borderlands":  Kamil Bembnista, Prof. Dr. Ludger Gailing

Network partners: Saarland University (network coordination), European University Frankfurt (Oder), Technical University of Kaiserslautern

For BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg: Prof. Dr. Ludger Gailing and Dr. Peter Ulrich

For Saarland University: Prof. Dr. Florian Weber (Network coordination), Prof. Dr. Astrid Fellner, Prof. Dr. Claudia Polzin-Haumann and Dr. Peter Dörrenbächer

For TU Kaiserslautern: Prof. Dr. Karina Pallagst, Prof. Dr. Georg Wenzelburger and Dr. Kirsten Mangels

For European University Frankfurt (Oder): Prof. Dr. Nicole Richter and Dr. Konstanze Jungbluth

Funding organisation: Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), Rahmenprogramm für die Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaften (2019 bis 2025) „Gesellschaft verstehen – Zukunft gestalten“, Fördermaßnahme auf dem Gebiet der Regionalstudien „Area Studies“

Duration: 04/2021 - 03/2024

The joint research project "Linking Borderlands: Dynamics of border-regional peripheries" examines and compares the German-Polish and German-French border areas in an interdisciplinary manner in various thematic focuses (policy transfer and learning, social practice and language in the context of vocational training, cultural negotiation processes in film, planning cultures, energy transitions). The research network is coordinated at Saarland University and includes the Technical University Kaiserslautern on the West German border and the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder) and the BTU on the East German border. The BTU coordinates the thematic focuses "Energy Borderlands" and "Policy Borderlands", each of which is worked on jointly with a partner university in the West German border region. The focus "Policy Borderlands", which is being carried out by the BTU in cooperation with the TU Kaiserslautern, connects the other sub-sections in the alliance with each other theoretically and conceptually.

The project aims to focus on European border regions as contact zones and transitional areas at the peripheries of nation states. In this way, persistent development paths as well as transformation processes in the so-called borderlands can be examined. The common approach lies in the field of border studies, which have increasingly developed in a constructivist context since the 1990s and enable an interdisciplinary treatment of border-regional questions.

The joint project is funded by the BMBF in the field "Area Studies". The framework program for the humanities and social sciences (2019 to 2025) is intended, among other things, to promote projects in the field of regional studies and strengthen them at universities, as well as to promote transfer with regard to society and politics.

Mobility support by means of data-based traffic management for tourist mobility in Lusatia (MoVeToLausitz)

Mobility support by means of data-based traffic management for tourist mobility in Lusatia (MoVeToLausitz)

 

Principal investigator at the Chair of Regional Planning:  Prof. Dr. Ludger Gailing

Project team:  Jan Nowakowski, Henk Wiechers

Consortium partners: [ui!] Urban Mobility Innovations (B2M Software GmbH) (Coordination), Urban Software Institute GmbH, Chair of Decarbonization and Transformation of Industry (BTU), Chair of Discrete Mathematics and Foundations of Computer Science (BTU), Fraunhofer IVI, Fraunhofer IML (Project Center Traffic, Mobility and Environment), RBO Regionalbus Ostbayern GmbH

Funding organization: Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport (BMDV)

Duration: 07/2022 - 06/2025

Link of project website: https://www.movetolausitz.de/

Link of support measures website:  https://www.bmvi.de/SharedDocs/DE/Artikel/DG/mfund-projekte/movetolausitz.html

Within the framework of the joint project MoVeToLausitz, the aim of our department is to investigate the transformation requirements of climate change and the ‘Verkehrswende’ in the regional context of tourist mobility. This is done on the one hand by analysing the political and social framework of existing transport and tourism concepts and their interconnections with other sectors in the context of sustainable regional development. On the other hand, these contextualizations will be linked with participative and collaborative methods of qualitative social research. In expert interviews with stakeholders, residents and tourists, local mobility needs will be qualitatively assessed and future scenarios and recommendations for action for sustainable tourism mobility in Lusatia will be developed in focus groups in a collaborative way.

The research project MoVeToLausitz is funded by the innovation initiative mFUND of the BMDV. The overall objective is to demonstrate sustainable perspectives and potentials of digital transport technologies in the field of leisure and tourism mobility in connection with everyday mobility in rural areas. The focus will be to look at the aspects of attractiveness, sustainability and economic viability of tourism in the Lusatian region in combination and, in this context, examine the potential of intelligent, intermodal, cross-border and demand-driven mobility solutions. The overall aim in this is to reduce motorized individual transport in the region.

Cross-InnoNet: Cross-border public services Berlin-Szczecin. A governance network in the health and mobility policy fields along the modernized train route

Collaborative project Cross-InnoNet: Cross-border public services Berlin-Szczecin. A governance network in the health and mobility policy fields along the modernized train route Sub-project: CrossInnoGov: Governance and networking in the field of cross-border public service

 

Collaborative project coordination:  Dr. Peter Ulrich, Prof. Dr. Ludger Gailing

Project team: Leonard Weiß and Martin Reents

Collaborative partners:German Institute for Specialist Medical Care Research (DIFA)

Regional cooperation partners: DB Regio AG (Regio Nordost), Verkehrsverbund Berlin-Brandenburg (VBB), Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development (HNEE), working group UCKER Warentakt (Uckermärkische Verkehrsgesellschaft UVG & HNEE), University of Potsdam (Kommunalwissenschaftliches Institut), University of Szczecin (Institute of Spatial Management and Socio-Economic Geography)

Funding organisation: Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), funding line "WIR! - Innovation and structural change", WIR! alliance "region4.0" (coordinated at HNEE)

Regional innovation cluster: WIR! alliance „region4.0“ (coordinated at HNEE) representing and covering the region Barnim-Uckermark in the Northeast of Brandenburg

Duration of the project: 09/2022 - 03/2025

The collaborative project "Cross-InnoNet" examines how cross-border public services in the rural region along the railway line between the metropolitan regions of Berlin and Szczecin can be empowered by creating a governance network in the policy fields of health and mobility. The governance network will also involve cross-border German-Polish networks.

The railway line will be extended and modernized until 2025/2026. In the context of the project, the expansion and modernization of the railway is understood as an innovation impulse to empower the region along the railway nodes through this governance network. In the sparsely populated, peripheral and structurally weak region, the project aims to strengthen the sustainable accessibility of the services and the networking of basic service providers across borders. As a part of the project, a governance network is being created along the route and a digital service schedule is being developed based on scientific data on health services provision and mobility patterns in the cross-border area along the railway line.

The collaborative project is coordinated by the BTU's Chair of Regional planning and carried out together with the German Institute for Specialist Medical Care Research (DIFA). It focuses on the policy fields of health and mobility. The collaborative project consists of two sub-projects - sub-project 1 "Cross-InnoGov: Governance and networking in the field of cross-border public services" of the BTU and sub-project 2 "Health care atlas and network of health, outpatient and specialist care in the 'region4.0'" of the DIFA.

Space of Transfer Alterperimentale: Governance, Strategy and Evaluation (AlPerLP1)

Space of Transfer Alterperimentale: Governance, Strategy and Evaluation (AlPerLP1)

 

Principal investigator at the Chair of Regional Planning:  Prof. Dr. Ludger Gailing

Project team:  Sunna Kovanen, Christoph Thewes, Luisa Geldbach, Undine Peiker and Sarah Weber

Funding organization: Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)

Link to funding website:https://www.innovation-strukturwandel.de/strukturwandel/de/innovation-strukturwandel/t_raum/t_raum_node.html

Duration: 08/2023 - 07/2026

Space of Transfer is part of the transfer alliance „Alterperimentale“ which is being implemented in cooperation with the following partners:

BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg, Chair of social services for structural weak regions
Prof.in Dr. Alexandra Retkowski (alliance coordination)

Katholische Hochschule Berlin, Fachgebiet Soziale Arbeit in der digitalisierten Gesellschaft
Prof.in Dr. Cordula Endter

Praxisforschungsstelle Heinersdorf (under sponsorship of Katholische Hochschule Berlin)
Annegret Huth

"Transferraum" is one of the two steering projects of the transfer alliance “Alterperimentale”. The transfer alliance aims to meet the challenges of the demographic structural changes in the fields of public services and care work - thereby enhancing the conditions for ageing well in rural regions. At the core of the transfer approach, decentralized practice-research centers act as local knowledge transfer spaces. They coordinate the cooperation and mutual learning processes between research and practice, ensure participation and identify research questions regarding the transfer alliance's research topics. "Transferraum" spans across the administrative districts Oder-Spree, Spree-Neiße and Görlitz. The civil initiative, Practice-research-center Heinersdorf serves as a provider of ideas as well as a template for the yet to be established research centers in Cottbus and Görlitz in cooperation with BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg and Hochschule Zittau/Görlitz.

The project "Transferraum" of the Chair of Regional Planning organises the greater strategy development and the evaluation of the "Alterperimentale". Furthermore, it is responsible for the operational  management, the scientific communication and the institutionalization of the transfer approach. The overarching goal of the project is to establish the "T!Raum Alterperimentale" and its transfer activities in the region. The exchange of knowledge and the cooperation with the partners and within the entire network are organised in close collaboration with the second steering project which takes care of developing already existing and new transfer formats. On a theoretical and empirical level, "Transferraum" contributes to the socio-ecological transformation of regional welfare structures and to the acceptance of regional transformation processes. In addition, it advances the development and application of spatial theories in these fields.

The concept of spatial development axis as a driver of transformation? Research on regional innovation systems with a special focus on the Berlin-Lausitz innovation corridor

The concept of spatial development axis as a driver of transformation? Research on regional innovation systems with a special focus on the Berlin-Lausitz innovation corridor

In co-operation with:  Humboldt University Berlin, Working Group of Applied Geography and Spatial Planning

Project team: Prof. Dr Ludger Gailing, Prof. Dr Henning Nuissl (HU Berlin), Leonard Weiß, Sascha Rentzsch

Funding: Presidia of BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

Duration: 10/2023 - 08/2024

As part of a co-operation initiative, the Department of Regional Planning at BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg and the working group of Applied Geography and Spatial Planning at Humboldt University Berlin are working together on the approach of regional development axes. At the centre of interest is the question of whether and how axis concepts can be made fruitful for regional development – with a particular focus on the Berlin-Lausitz innovation corridor.

In the course of the discussions, an expertise is being produced which, on the basis of a literature analysis, lists the history of axis concepts, various interpretative approaches and findings on the effects, as well as an expertise which uses a Delphi survey to analyse the prospects for the Berlin-Lausitz Innovation Corridor project. In a first workshop in Berlin in March, spatial, thematic and strategic facets of the use of axis concepts in the context of funding, cluster and settlement policies were explored and concretised for the Berlin-Lausitz corridor. A second workshop on the research took place on 24 June 2024 in Cottbus.

BB-L Interconnection: Vision for a joint interaction area

BB-L Interconnection: Vision for a joint interaction area

 

Project management at the BTU:  Prof. Dr. Ludger Gailing

Project team:  Martin Reents

Consortium partners: Marshal’s Office of the Lubuskie Voivodeship (lead partner), Joint Regional Planning Department Berlin-Brandenburg

Funding organization: Interreg VI A Cooperation Programme Brandenburg-Poland

Duration: 04/2024 - 03/2027

Link to project website:  In preparation

Link to support measures website:  https://interreg-brandenburg-polska.eu/

In cooperation with the Marshal's Office of the Lubuskie Voivodeship and the Joint Regional Planning Department Berlin-Brandenburg, the Department of Regional Planning at BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg is implementing the Interreg A project “BB-L Interconnection: Vision for a joint interaction area” until 2027. The aim of the project is to strengthen administrative cooperation and spatial linkages between East Brandenburg and the Lubuskie Voivodeship.

The project focuses on the following tasks:

  • Intensification of administrative cooperation in the field of spatial and regional development, creation and consolidation of joint cooperation structures, knowledge transfer and exchange of experience
  • Analysis of regional socio-economic opportunities and challenges in the form of a territorial diagnosis
  • Preparation of two expert reports on polycentric settlement structures and the use of renewable energies
  • Development of a joint vision for the future of the Brandenburg-Lebus interaction area, including recommendations for action
  • Strengthening the identity as a joint interaction area

The spatial focus of the project lies on the funding area of the Interreg VI A Cooperation Programme Brandenburg-Poland and thus also corresponds to the area of the Euroregions PRO EUROPA VIADRINA and Spree-Neiße-Bober. Adjacent parts of the German-Polish interaction area and developments along supra-regional axes will be included in the project as required.

Conceptually, the project closes a gap, as regional concepts for spatial and regional development already exist for other cross-border sub-regions of the German-Polish interaction area (Saxony-Lower Silesia, Szczecin Metropolitan Region).

The project is funded by the European Union from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) as part of the Interreg VI A Brandenburg-Poland 2021-2027 Cooperation Programme. It has a total budget of EUR 1.02 million.