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Spectra, Centre of Excellence is the Official Partner of unique City festival urban E.T., which will be held in municipality of Rača from 1st June till 3rd June 2012. The festival programme is consisting from artistic and interactive interventions into the urban space, exhibitions, movie projections, workshops, urban games, concerts and performances, discussions and conference.

Representatives of RMU University Pittsburgh, led by prof. Fred Kohun, visited the Institute of Management STU and Spectra, Centre of Excellence during the week from 13^th-till 17^th June 2011. The visit  was prepared with the main aim to outline the context of future cooperation between the STU and RMU. RMU Pittsburgh accommodates 5,100 Students at the Undergraduate and Graduate Levels and provides more than 30 Bachelor’s Degree Programs and 18 Master’s and Doctoral Degree Programs. Students of RMU are coming from over 40 states in the U.S. and 40 countries all around the world.

Ružomberok, the City in the Central Slovakia, was from 31st March till 2nd April 2011 the venue of the students project under the knickname „urbanET“. The project was prepared by the students of masters study of Spatial Planning at Institute of Management, STU Bratislava and the main idea of the project is to go beyond the limits of one epizodic workshop and to introduce a long term artistic-sociologic-community based initiative dealing with the phenomena of the city as a living organism and examining various approaches toward its contemporary existence.

Project ITMS 26240120002 SPECTRA+, Centre of Excellence for the Settlement Infrastructure Development of the Knowledge Based Society has been implemented since May 2009. This period was focused on the preparation of the contracting the 6 technological platforms for all 4 participating partners. STU Bratislava covered this process on behalf of all partners. The evaluation of public tender was made in July 2010, the legal agreement was signed in October 2010. Nowadays, the fullfilment of the contract is going on.

On the 22nd. June, prof. Maros Finka, assoc. prof. Dagmar Petrikova and dr. Matej Jaššo met with Mr. Štefan Bošňák, mayor of the City of Trnava, Mr. Milan Horák, Head of the Department of Spatial Development of the Municipal Office of City of Trnava and mayors of 10 municipalities of Trnava region.

Prof. M. Finka and Dr. M. Jaššo took a part on the Conference under the headline Spatial Planning and Global Crisis, Responses from Central, Eastern and Southern-Eastern Europe, organised by Insitute of Geography, University of Belgrade. The event was held on 23th-24th September in Belgrade. The conference was co-organised by SPA-CE.net, research network of institutes and organisations active in the field of spatial planning. Our representatives presented paper with title „Selected aspects of territorial cohesion in Slovakia under the recent crisis“.

Ružomberok, the City in the Central Slovakia, will be from 31st March till 2nd April 2011 the venue of the students project under the knickname „urbanET“. The project is being prepared by the students of masters study of Spatial Planning at Institute of Management, STU Bratislava and the main idea of the project is to go beyond the limits of one epizodic workshop and to introduce a long term artistic-sociologic-community based initiative dealing with the phenomena of the city as a living organism and examining various approaches toward its contemporary existence. The project is aproaching the public audience with the aim to teach to perceive the city as one of the most versatile and manifold structure of our social reality and introducing the architecture and urban design as something unique and extraordinary. The project would like to enrich the everyday dully routines in the contact with city with series of happenings, events, trips, lectures and encounters within the urban environment. The main challenge is to evoke the need for participation, enhancing the social contacts and redefine the old mental maps of the participating inhabitants. More at www.urbanet.sk

Municipality of Bratislava and International Intervision Institute from Doesburg, the Netherlands organised in 20th – 22nd September 2010 a workshop CUPA Implementation Lab Bratislava. The event was devoted to theory and practise of co-operative urban planning approaches. Austrian Newspaper 'Der Standard' printed (22^nd September) an interview with the chief architect of Bratislava, prof. Š. Šľachta, where he states that it is necessary to inform him about the CUPA workshop and the outcomes. Spectra, Centre of Excellence was represented by dr. Matej Jaššo and his presentation under the title: 7 years of Centrope region: Critical Review on Vision, Identity and Branding.

The debate on European spatial planning spans over two decades, but has gained currency and legitimacy with the inclusion of ‘territorial cohesion’ as an objective of the European Union in the Lisbon Treaty. Although no consensus exists on the specific problems territorial cohesion policy should address, it recognizes the diversity of European regions and their particular development potentials. Moreover, it has the clear ambition, like spatial planning and regional policy, of being evidence-based. This raises the crucial question: what kind of knowledge is needed for this emerging policy area, how is it being (re)produced and by whom?

Spectra, Centre of Excellence and Academy for Spatial Research and Planning (ARL) Hannover are co-organizing the international conference of European Young Professionals´Forum under the headline Challenges of European Spatial Development: Young Professionals´ and Researchers´ Perspectives on 12^th-13^th October 2010 in Mannheim.