The Danube region is characterised by largely diverging levels of development in different regions. Especially small and medium-sized cities (SMCs) in lower regions are facing challenges linked closely to shrinkage processes, ageing population structures, labour shortages, loss of local identity, and a diminishing river industry. Furthermore, their spatial development is characterised by incoherent planning processes, leading to wasting natural resources and environmental problems. DANUBIAN_SMCs project tackles these challenges in a creative, innovative and cross-disciplinary way. Based on knowledge transfer and exchange of experiences between actors and institutions focusing on education based in Central-Western and Lower Danube regions, Danubian SMCs strengthens the transnational dialogue between 7 important universities in the region. The project increases the mobility of academic staff and students, shares knowledge about new and innovative methodologies in teaching, enhances the data basis for further research projects, and involves a number of local stakeholders in tackling the common challenges in SMCs of the Danube region. Danubian SMCs addresses these aims through the organisation of workshops, intensive teaching blocks and excursions in the participating universities and regions, both for students and teachers. Innovative research and design tools constitute the main content of the projects’ activities, which aim for addressing complex planning problems, identifying common characteristics and improving connections between the different areas of the Danube region. The partnership is formed by: BME-Hungary, UNS–Serbia, UB–Serbia, DUK–Austria, STU–Slovakia, TUW–Austria, UAUIM- the lead university. All universities involved are related to the field of architecture-urban planning-landscape planning-built environment engineering-urban and regional development, morphology, economic development, ecology and environmental protection etc and have expertise in teaching disciplines correlated with the inclusive development strategies of SMCs. All universities will be part or will be responsible for different activities and intellectual outputs, and will participate at the joint workshops and meetings. There will be 2 Short-term joint staff training events, 3 Intensive programmes for teaching staff joint with 3 Intensive programmes for higher education learners, 3 Transnational Meetings, 2 Multiplier events, and 3 Intellectual Outputs (Methodological guidelines and new theoretical and practical methods of interdisciplinary teaching for assessing small and medium sized cities (SMCs) on Danube, Report of data collection of good practices and teaching/ learning cross-border cooperation on Danube SMCs- mapping the knowledge to transfer research and innovation in continuing education, and Teaching module framework for assessing the inclusive development of Danubian SMCs). The methodology used in the project implementation is in line with the principles agreed upon by The Erasmus + program, being primarily a collaborative educational project that emphasizes both the transfer of knowledge between university partners and between teachers and students of all partners. The methodology consists of a set of steps for each phase which is part of the activity plan, having as main focus to stimulate all participants to an innovative approach of teaching activities. Thus, short-term joint staff training events will set out the Intensive Programs for Higher Education Learners, for Teaching Staff and Transnational Meetings will discuss the results and project evolution. All activities will infuse Intellectual Outputs whose coordinators will be present at learning / learning events. The Multiplier Events will provide the necessary dissemination and visibility of the work and its results during the project and at its end. The main results of our project are: a) Strengthen the regional dialogue among the partnership universities in the cross-disciplinary education field spatial planning, b) Increasing mobility of academic staff and students to broaden the innovative research, c) Contributing with new methodologies and innovative teaching approach to study the actual problematic of Danubian SMCs, d) Contributing with new perspectives, innovative and customized data and creative body of knowledge about the inclusive development of SMCs, e) Increasing the involvement of local stakeholders to real issues and problems of the inhabitants of Danubian SMCs. At longer term, the project will show how a Danube SMCs can be better known and valorised with unconventional and creative teaching methods, getting to an inclusive and stimulative attitude both for teachers and learners and for local stakeholders. Through this, the project will create a link to the creativity and innovation requirements on the labor market and the expected competences of the graduates in spatial planning field.
In the desire for a coherent and more balanced development of the Danube region, according to relevant EU documents, it was essential to consider the differences in the existing levels of development between the various Danube cities as the problems faced by the small and medium-sized cities (SMCs) along the river. Thus, the 7 universities involved had a key role and provided the necessary framework of knowledge based on new and creative methods in discovering values and latent potential that, once revealed, becomes ” trigger” for spatial and social – cultural local development of the region. By developing new guidelines and methods through an innovative and cross disciplinary body of knowledge able to adapt to the complex changes in the actual post-industrial Danube SMCs, the project developed an international incentive higher educational context in the field of spatial planning. By developing a new set of practical and directly applicable tools as action/intervention/field testing activities, the project created opportunities for some learning and teaching value when students got to know the real implementation process of urban research, planning, and actions together with the local authorities and stakeholders.
The project aimed to address the subject of small and medium-sized cities (SMCs) in the Lower Danube regions, especially because these cities face very challenging processes linked to shrinkage and declining at all urban life levels and because the level of knowledge in planning and urbanism is still limited, requiring an interdisciplinary opening through a more complex and complete approach to this problem. The problem of small and medium-sized Danube cities (DSMCs) highlighted the divergent higher levels of development in different river territories of the Danube, being a development problem of integrative and large-scale regional planning. Based on the transfer of knowledge and the exchange of experience between the 7 important universities based in both the Central-Western and the Lower Danube regions, focusing on education, Danubian_SMCs strengthens the transnational dialogue and inclusion in the Danube region. The importance of the distinct teaching of this theme also derives from the need to deeply understand the concept of social inclusion and exclusion, not only at the micro-social scale, but also at the macro-territorial scale.