The Research Unit focuses on teaching and applied research around issues in the field of planning science, in particular the planning of development at the regional, national, European, and international levels. The teaching component emphasises the methods and instruments of supra-local spatial planning in Austria.

One central tenet at the Research Unit is: "Space is our research laboratory". This is why at all times research and teaching are connected to a particular region and its specific challenges. In addition to the basics of regional planning, students already come face to face with regional planning practice at the undergraduate level. In the lecture of the same name, the task consists in drawing up the profile of a region. In this regard, the spatial emphasis lies on a different federal province every year. A study trip is an integral part of this, whereby students can experience 'the region' and initiate contact with regional actors. In Project 2, a regional development scheme is drawn up with students and then discussed on site with planning experts, political representatives and interested local residents.

Within the framework of the Master's programme in Spatial Planning and Regional Planning, the Research Unit participates in the compulsory module on Process design and Methodology. On the basis of real invitations to tender, students prepare either a research proposal or a bid, and are thus screened by a professional jury. In the lecture Integrated Development Planning, students expand their competence to deal with a range of objectives, concepts, institutional arrangements, instruments and processes across disciplines of planning and to analyse and apply them at different levels of scale. Moreover, courses are increasingly cross-curricular, cross-faculty or even cross-university. Planning projects in the Master's programme have a more 'European' or 'international' flavour. Compulsory subjects and projects are complemented by current planning and socio-political issues. Optional modules on Spatial Planning in rural and alpine  Spaces as well as on Mobility and energy-related Spatial Planning provide opportunities to delve deeper into the subject in spatial terms. We place special emphasis on the supervision of dissertations with a practical orientation and on scientific discourse. Last but not least, our partner universities play an essential role in the Socrates/Erasmus Programmes of the EU and in the CEEPUS network.

You will find an overview of the schemes and projects that have been developed or implemented in recent years under Laboratory: Space.