About PRC 2025
Belfast, the host city of the UK-Ireland Planning Research Conference (PRC) 2025, is recognised internationally as a place of post-conflict transformation. Reflecting the nature of planning, this transformation has been, and continues to be, a journey: continuously evolving in response to changing societal, environmental, economic, technological, and political conditions.
Advocates for planning, including the RTPI, emphasise the power of planning in creating prosperous places and vibrant communities. This power is yielded statutorily – such as through regulatory processes – and in the ‘soft spaces’ that planners inhabit, working with and alongside communities and decision makers. Planning operates across a wide variety of urban, rural, regional, and transboundary contexts (for example as experienced on the island of Ireland). Whilst there are uncertainties associated with planning that projects years into the future, ergo the requirement for continuous monitoring and management, it remains crucial that planners do consider future-proofing sustainable realities.
This conference therefore asks: what futures are being imagined, and what role does Planning have in navigating towards sustainable outcomes?
In responding to this question, it is important to learn from the past and present to ‘look forward’ in identifying what the key challenges are and how these can be addressed. Policies and practices today will inform short- and long-term futures, with ‘macro’ dynamics – such as decarbonisation, the climate emergency, and generative AI – influencing spatial planning outcomes.
Through the contributions of participants, this conference will: consider innovations in planning research and education; explore requisite knowledge and skills of planning practitioners; and (re-) imagine what the future holds for planning.
There will be opportunities for conference participants to experience the city and surrounding areas via organised study tours.