*Celebrating Spatial Planning at TU Delft: 2008-2019. Edited by Stead, Bracken, Rooij & Rocco

Urbanism . TU Delft 103
Long-standing research
collaboration in the network
of European spatial planners
STEFANIE DÜHR PH.D., DIPL.-GEOGR., RESEARCH PROFESSOR: URBAN AND REGIONAL PLANNING
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA
When I was asked to contribute
a short reflection
of my research collaboration
with TU Delft’s SPS team
for Vincent’s retirement booklet,
my first reaction was: great – I
have a lot to say on this! The
second thought, promptly after
the first, was: I have so much
to say – how will I squeeze this
into a short piece that does
justice to the multitude of joint
activities? After all, over many
years and in different constellations
with SPS members, we
worked on joint publications,
prepared research bids, and
completed projects, co-organised
conference sessions, and
contributed to our respective
education programmes and PhD
workshops.
Vincent, of course, has been
there from the beginning of my
academic career and we have
become friends over the twenty
years of working together. We
first met in 1998, after I had just
completed my geography degree
at the University of Trier and
was working as a “stagiaire” in
DG Regio of the European Commission.
Vincent was the lead
consultant on the “Compendium
of Spatial Planning Systems and
Policies”, and I was tasked with
coordinating the publication of
the different country volumes.
Many conversations on this
undertaking led to a successful
conclusion of the project,
and – perhaps
not entirely
unrelated –
the offer of
a researcher
position in Vincent’s
team at
the University
of the West of
England.
Vincent’s calm
“Englishness”
seemed rather
exotic in
comparison
to the German
academics I
was used to.
It turned out
to provide for
a productive
working environment
for
research collaboration,
and
by the time I
left Bristol for the Netherlands in
2005, we had completed a range of
projects and prepared a number
of joint publications. When Vincent
relocated to Delft three years
later, we continued to collaborate
on our shared research interests
from our respective corners of the
Netherlands. The book “European
spatial planning and territorial
cooperation”, published together
with Claire Colomb in 2010, is an
important outcome of these collective
research endeavours.
During a guest professorship at TU
Delft, shortly before I moved
to Australia in early 2018, I
could experience again how
inspiring it is to brainstorm
with Vincent about a research
problem, and how he manages
to motivate and empower
those working with him. I
am sure he will be missed as
head of the Department, but
I will look forward to continuing
our research collaboration
in a different capacity and
over hopefully many more
years to come.