Community Participation in Planning (CPiP)

Community Participation in Planning (CPiP) was a two-year collaborative project involving Ulster University (UK), Community Places (UK), the University of Aveiro (Portugal) and the Politecnico di Milano (Italy), exploring the concept, application and teaching of participation in planning activities. The project focused on understanding how different communities participate in planning processes, across the three case study geographies (Aveiro, Belfast and Milan), that shape how places evolve and how public services are designed and delivered. A core ambition of CPiP, aligned with the European Union’s (EU) Erasmus+ programme, was to enhance (higher) education and training activities that fostered innovative ways to engage participates in planning processes.

The CPiP project objectives were to:

• Develop a shared understanding of participation operating in different planning systems across the partnering European countries.
• Explore how communities of interest, place, practice, and learning can be more meaningfully involved in planning processes e.g. local area planning and community (or integrated public service) planning.
• Co-design and test different ways of empowering stakeholders to shape local services and place-making functions
• Share ideas and exchange good practice and learning amongst the range of participants involved in the project – and to share this learning with others
• Enhance the quality and relevance of the learning offered in higher education modules by informing curriculum development and innovative approaches on engagement in planning processes.