The DEMo4PPL project objectives are: • Development, pilot and assessment of an innovative curriculum for Participatory Planning through modular design with flexibility to address different needs of HEIs. • Provision of knowledge and skills to students and practitioners, suited to the needs of the EU labour market. • Improved PPL practice through better equipped future and current practitioners, community development and tackling societal challenges. • Contribution to the digital transformation of HEIs capitalizing on the unprecedented use of technology in education due to COVID-19, via using appropriate digital tools and OER. • Capacity building of HEIs and enhancement of educators’ digital skills to implement the modular curriculum design. • Strengthening links, synergies and cooperation networks between HEIs.
European communities are nowadays striving to tackle societal challenges and to integrate local needs into the context of global goals, such as SDG11: Sustainable Cities and Communities, and EU Green Deal. To this end, it is important to implement more effective Participatory Planning (PPL) for the inclusion and engagement of the entire community in planning. The “digital era” brings forward advanced digital PPL tools and innovative methods. Despite the rapid development of these tools and methods, their acknowledgement in the curricula of many HEIs across Europe follows a significantly slower pace, with negative impact on education and training of students and practitioners. This is primarily due to the lack of flexibility to timely grasp key elements of technological evolution and adjust to new needs and goals. In addition, educators often lack the appropriate digital skills and knowledge to undertake the necessary changes in their modules. In this framework, the motivation for DEMo4PPL project stems from the need for inter-disciplinary cooperation with focus on spatial planning and sustainable development aiming to create and test flexible learning pathways towards state-of-the-art knowledge on PPL and digital PPL tools.