TOD-IS-RUR
TRANSIT ORIENTED DEVELOPMENT FOR INCLUSIVE AND SUSTAINABLE RURAL-URBAN REGIONS
Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) - Innovative Training Network (ITN)
COUNTERING SPRAWL IN EUROPE: RURAL-URBAN PLACEMAKING AND MOBILITY
TOD-IS-RUR in a nutshell
The Innovative Training Network (ITN) TOD-IS-RUR sets up an interdisciplinary, international and intersectoral network to make significant research contributions to the scientific and societal challenge of countering sprawl in Europe. The 9 Beneficiaries and 12 Partner Organizations create a unique platform for 10 Early Stage Researchers (ESRs), providing cutting-edge training to analyze rural-urban place-making and develop novel, context-based planning schemes for rural-urban regions (RURs).
The network aims to extend the concept of Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) to RURs with a context-based approach, in which interactions between mobility and urbanization are studied in relation to social and environmental qualities.
LATEST NEWS & EVENTS
NEWS
Press release
The Project TOD-IS-RUR Concludes on 30 April 2025 with Key Insights towards Rethinking Mobility in Rural-Urban Regions
The Innovative Training Network (ITN) TOD-IS-RUR project (Transit-Oriented Development for Inclusive and Sustainable Rural-Urban Regions), funded within the framework of Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions, has successfully concluded its mission on 30 April 2025. Aiming to address urban sprawl, and the environmental and social challenges surrounding mobility and urbanisation in Europe's rural-urban regions, TOD-IS-RUR redefined Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) through a context-based lens. Rather than applying one-size-fits-all models, the project examined how mobility and urbanization interact in diverse rural-urban landscapes, with the goal of promoting socially inclusive and environmentally sustainable planning practices.
Through a unique collaboration between 9 academic beneficiaries and 12 partner organizations, the project provided advanced interdisciplinary training to 10 Early-Stage Researchers (ESRs). TOD-IS-RUR offers a perspective on understanding TOD, moving from a conventional, urban-cantered model toward a context-sensitive approach suited to rural-urban landscapes. Drawing on fields such as mobility and transport studies, landscape studies, geography, and environmental history, the project investigated how TOD could better align with the social and environmental qualities of rural-urban regions across Europe.
Key lessons from TOD-IS-RUR emphasize that:
• Public transport should not be seen as a purely top-down service, but as a shared commons shaped by community participation.
• High-quality public transport is essential not only in dense urban cores but also in rural and peri-urban areas.
• Citizens should be empowered with creative tools to express their mobility needs and visions, using their own forms of communication.
• Planning should respect the unique context and historical identity of each region; a single universal model cannot address all challenges.
• Finally, mobility strategies should avoid being "space-blind" and focus not only on technologies, but also on the specific spatial dynamics of each area.
More information: www.todisrur.eu
Studio Antwerp - Amsterdam
We just finished a fantastic program for the Studio Antwerp/Amsterdam hosted by our network members based in the University of Antwerp and University of Amsterdam. It was a full week of research/practice dialogues on TOD, academic lectures for our early stage researchers, collaborative 'serious' games, case study visits in the Belgian and Dutch contexts on how mobility/development is practiced or envisioned, immersion in a Dutch rural village, and tour/presentations from local municipal planners who shared their opportunities and challenges when it came to planning around and for mobility.
Congratulations professor Bertolini!
So proud! And well deserved! In recognition of his expertise in urban planning, Professor Luca Bertolini received the Honorary degree in Design Sciences at the University of Antwerp.
Workshop Sweden
The Sweden Micro Workshop which was jointly hosted by KTH Royal Institute of Technology and SLU - Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences was concluded with such succes! In the packed two-day program, we had guests joining us to talk about themes on policy mobilities, the case of Knivsta, and policy/report writing: speakers from non-academic partners WSP i Sverige, IQ Samhällsbyggnad and Knivsta Kommun, as well as TOD-IS-RUR Network's scientific advisor Nik Luka from McGill University!
The Framework Paper is published!
This Framework Paper presents both the interdisciplinarity of the TOD-IS-RUR research network, and the multiple angles through which we as a group critically engage with the TOD concept. Written as a series of playful dialogues, the paper attempts to maintain an open debate on transport and land use planning that goes beyond discourses of technical problems and expert solutions and comes closer to concerns of people’s daily lives.
UPCOMING EVENTS
PAST EVENTS
Images credits: TOD-IS-RUR has received permission from the authors of the images to use them on its website.
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RT @AK_Klaassen: Had a great and inspiring time at the #AAG2023 in Denver presenting my historical research on public transport pol… https://t.co/FkXIXrQO3a -
Congratulations to Prof. dr. @lbertolini63! 🏆 https://t.co/s3qlqM9X55
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Did you miss Prof. dr. @lbertolini63 Luca Bertolini's masterclass on city planning beyond mobility at @UAntwerpen?… https://t.co/tfhKvPNP5U