Governing Board

Ignazio Vinci joined the EURA governing board in 2015, between 2017-2019 coordinated the EURA Working Group on Urban Change, he has been elected president in 2025 after serving as vice president between 2021-2025.
PhD in Urban and Regional Planning and Associate Professor of Urban Planning at the University of Palermo, Italy, he teaches within MSc programmes and is member of the teaching board of the PhD Programme in Arts, Arch. and Planning. He is member of the local commission for International Relations where he holds the responsibility for different exchange programmes. He is a member of the Italian scientific association INU where he has acted as vice president of the Sicily regional section. He has been invited to give lectures, seminars and be keynote speaker in many universities and conferences. In 2019 and 2021 took part of the international scientific committee of the EURA-UAA Conference, and EURA2021. His research interests include urban development in Europe and Italy, urban regeneration and local development, innovation in spatial planning and territorial governance.

Robin Hambleton is Emeritus Professor of City Leadership at the University of the West of England, Bristol and Director of Urban Answers. He was the founding President of EURA, serving from 1997-2002.

From 2002-2007 he was Dean of the College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs at the University of Illinois at Chicago and served on the Urban Affairs Association (UAA) Governing Board for two terms.

His research and consultancy work with cities focuses on how to enhance justice by strengthening the power of place-based leadership in the modern world. His latest books are Leading the Inclusive City (2015) and Cities and Communities Beyond COVID-19. How local leadership can change our future for the better (2020), both published by Bristol University Press.

Sonia is assistant professor in the Department of urban and regional planning (DUYOT) of the School of Architecture of the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid –UPM-. Her professional experience has been developed in parallel in the field of urban/ architectural practice and research on urban policies from the beginning of her career. She has worked as a practitioner for international offices (Chapman Taylor and L35), focusing on the development of masterplans and mix-use architectural projects in Europe, North Africa, Asia and Central America.

She has also been researcher in CEDEX, the Centre of Research of the Spanish Ministry of Public Works, and visitor researcher in the European Institute for Urban Affairs (University John Moores of Liverpool), the Boku University (Vienna) and the Università IUAV (Venice), among other research institutions. She is member of the Technical Committee of the Spanish National Conference on Environment (CONAMA), and has been member of the Working Group of the Ministry of Finance for the Spanish Urban Agenda, as well as expert for the Partnership on Poverty and Urban Regeneration of the Urban Agenda of the EU, and expert in the framework of the Urban Innovative Actions of the European Commission.

She has participated as researcher and coordinator of national and international research projects, achieving results that have been largely published in high impact academic journals. Her research work focuses on integrated urban policies in the EU and the member states, with a relational view that pays specific attention to urban regeneration, local climate change, mobility, and the gender dimension of urban policies.

Valeria Fedeli is Associate Professor of Territorial Planning at the Department of Architecture and Urban Studies of the Politecnico Di Milano, vice-coordinator of the PhD course in Urban Planning, Policy and Design. Between 2017 and 2021 she acted as president of the European Urban Research Association. She is member of the scientific committee of Urban @ it, Italian National Center of research for urban policies.

Between 2015 and 2018 she was responsible for the Jean Monnet EU urban and regional policy module, funded by the European Commission, within the Erasmus Plus-Jean Monnet Program. She is currently member of the Working Group Planning and Governing the Metropolis, promoted and supported by ARL – Academy for Spatial Research and Planning (ARL), Hannover, Germany; she is a member of the International Coordination Committee of the Urban Futures Program, PRES, Pôle de Recherche et d’Enseignement Supérieur (PRES) Université Paris-Est (UPE).

Member/founder of the Research on Urban Future Research Laboratory of the Department of Architecture and Urban Studies, as well as a member of the Coordination Committee of the interdisciplinary DAT@ter nuclear network of Politecnico di Milano. Her most recent research interests are aimed at exploring the processes of urban regionalisation, the transcalar character of the urban question in contemporary society and the challenges that such a condition generates in terms of design of policies and institutions, also in terms of strategic planning, as well as the construction of processes and forms of democratic governance

Geir Heierstad is the director of the Norwegian Institute for Urban and Regional Research (NIBR) at Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway. He is a social anthropologist with a background from research on urban renewal and political culture in India. Through studies of caste based urban neighbourhoods he has worked on the interconnections between tradition and modernity, local practises, and globalisation. More recently his research interests have centred around urban governance and climate mitigation in a Nordic context, as well as the prevention of radicalisation and violent extremism. Both fields concern the establishment and nurturing of arenas involving multiple actors from e.g., public, private, and civil society sectors working together to define and reach common goals. Through his period as NIBR's Director he has worked on the establishment of the annual Norwegian Urban Research Conference, Storbykonferansen, and the peer-reviewed, open-access Nordic Journal of Urban Studies.

Tuomas Ilmavirta is a university teacher at the Department of Built Environment, Aalto University, Finland.

Tuomas teaches land-use planning and his research interests lie in urban branding, discursive production of urban space, and emerging urban planning methods.

Carsten Jahn Hansen (CJH) is Associate Professor in spatial development and planning, PhD in Spatial planning, and master in Surveying, Planning and Land Management. CJH has a base in Department of Planning and is Director of the Danish Centre for Spatial Planning at Aalborg University, Denmark.
CJH has expertice in spatial development, governance and planning processes and in 'place-making', in particular in local and regional contexts. His work focuses on place-sensitive approaches and innovation in development of appropriate governance and planning spaces in both urban and rural areas. CJH has developed insight into development and planning cultures, and how cultural and social aspects play an important part of 'the capacity to act' and to transform places. This includes attention to the role of different types of trust relations in development, governance and planning processes.

Dubravka Jurlina Alibegović is a researcher and Head of Department for Regional Development at the Institute of Economics, Zagreb. She is co-coordinator, team leader and consultant in many projects and studies regarding budgeting and development at regional and local level, intergovernmental fiscal relations, local public finance, infrastructure financing, and financing of science and education. She is a lecturer at postgraduate and guest lecturer in undergraduate studies at the University of Zagreb, the Faculty of Political Sciences, the Faculty of Law. She is a member of the Governing Board of the European Association for Urban Research (EURA), the Croatian Section of the European Association of Regional Research (ERSA) and the Euro-Mediterranean Forum of Institutes of Economic Sciences (Forum Euroméditerranéen des Instituts de Sciences Économiques is Euro-Mediterranean Network)(FEMISE).

She was Director of the Institute of Economics, Zagreb (2013-2016). Previously she worked as Minister of Public Administration in the Ministry of Public Administration (2016) and Deputy Minister in the Ministry of Science and Technology of Republic of Croatia (2000-2002).

Marta Lackowska is an Assistant Professor at the University of Warsaw, Department of Local Development and Policy.

Her research interests include metropolitan governance, intermunicipal cooperation, territorial identification, Europeanization, urban politics and policies, rescaling, internationalization of local policies, and local policies of adaptation to change.

Le Anh Long is an Assistant Professor of Public Administration at the University of Twente. She studied Public Policy and Political Science at Indiana University, Bloomington, home to Lin and Vince Ostrom’s Workshop on Political Theory. At Twente, Le Anh teaches modules on decision making, networked governance, and urban resilience. In terms of research, she studies how institutional arrangements shape policy action. More specifically, she examine policy innovation in the context of rapidly evolving socio-technical environments.

Le Anh is especially interested in the role of cities, in their capacity as laboratories of democracy, contribute new solutions through policy experimentation. Focusing on complex challenges like climate change, cyber security, and immigration, she aim to shed light on the conditions under which policy actors (e.g. actors and organizations) are able to pursue policies that anticipate, prevent, adapt, or transform in response to disruptions, be they technological, social, or natural.

Cristiana Rossignolo is Associate Professor in Urban and Regional Geography at the Interuniversity Department of Urban and Regional Studies and Planning (DIST), Politecnico e Università di Torino, Italy. She is the Chair of the Commission Planning and Design of the DIST, that coordinates the Bachelor and the Master of Science in Territorial, Urban, Environmental and Landscape Planning. She is involved in several national and European researches. Her research interests are primarily concerned with European urban policies, networks of cities, neighborhoods and urban regeneration, post-metropolitan cities, governance and strategic planning.

Paula Russell is an assistant professor and director of graduate studies in the School of Architecture, Planning and Environmental Policy, University College Dublin. Paula’s main research interests are in the broad area of community and governance. A particular focus of much of her research is the interface between civil society and the policy process most notably between the public and the institutions of the planning system. Other interests include the exploration of innovative approaches to managing land use and how places are shaped by various actors.

Paula has completed research in the following areas: Community involvement in urban regeneration; the role of active citizens in neighbourhood development; the contested nature of rural development; participation, citizen capacity and the regeneration of social housing; social capital and civic engagement in rural areas; quality of life in urban neighbourhoods; children and young people’s participation in the Irish planning system; multifunctional intensive landuse and; the exploration of the potential of market based instruments in landuse planning. Paula is a Corporate Member of the Irish Planning Institute (IPI) and is the chair of the IPI’s Technical and Education committee. She is an associate editor of the EURA journal Urban Research and Practice.

Marichela Sepe is associate Professor of Urban Planning at the Department of Civil, Constructional and Environmental Engineeering, Faculty of Civil and Industrial Engineering, Sapienza Università di Roma.
Marichela Sepe also joined the ISMed-CNR as a researcher and DiARC-University of Naples Federico II as a contract Professor. She was visiting scholar at the Laboratoire Jardins, Paysages, Territories of the Ecole d’Architecture Paris La Villette (2000) and at the Department of Urban Studies and Planning of MIT, Cambridge (2004), and visiting Professor in the Peking University (2013), helding lectures in the Peking, Wuhan and Xi’an Universities. Her research interests include: urban landscape analysis and planning; urban design; place identity; experiential paths; healthy city; livable public space; territorial and environmental planning; creative urban regeneration. On these topics she has worked on many founded research projects and published several journal articles, conference papers, books and book chapters. In 2014-2018 she won: the Ardito-Desio Award at Ipsapa 2014, 2016 and 2018 Conference; the Runner-up Practitioner paper at T-Forum 2015; and the Urban Planning Literature Award of the Italian National Urban Planning Institute (INU) in 2014, 2015 and 2017.

Danielle Sinnett is the Director of the Centre for Sustainable Planning and Environments and a member of the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Healthy Urban Environments at the University of the West of England. She is a Professor in Sustainable Built Environments, with expertise in land regeneration and green infrastructure. Much of her research has focussed on different aspects of green infrastructure, including as a mechanism to regenerate brownfield and contaminated land, the planning and delivery of green infrastructure in urban environments, and the benefits it provides particularly for health and wellbeing. She has been awarded funding from the UK's national funding agency, UKRI, the Wellcome Trust and the European Commission, as well as numerous consultancy research projects producing evidence and guidance for policymakers, practitioners and NGOs.

Cristina Stănuș has joined the EURA Board in 2015. She is Associate Professor of Political Science at the Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu in Romania. There, she teaches courses on governance, public policy analysis, and research methodology. Her research focuses on local government and politics in Romania in a comparative context and the public governance of societal sectors. She has participated in several international comparative research projects and has published the results of her research on local government and politics in Romania in international journals and edited books. Before entering the academia, she has worked for civic non-governmental organisations in Romania. Her consultancy work includes projects for the United Nations Development Programme, the Educational Support Program of the Open Society Foundations, and various Romanian non-governmental associations.

Carla Tedesco is Associate Professor in Urban and Regional Planning at the Dep. of Architecture and Arts – Università IUAV di Venezia. She is coordinator of the bachelor’s degree in Planning and urban design. Her research interests are concerned with Europeanization of urban policy and spatial planning in Italy, community involvement in urban regeneration and social innovation. She has carried out research work, presented papers and published on these issues being part of national and international research groups. She has been deputy mayor in charge for urban planning and policy in Bari (2014-2019).

Filipe Teles joined the EURA governing board in 2015 and was EURA president between 2021-2025.
He is a political scientist in the Department of Social, Political and Territorial Sciences at the University of Aveiro, Portugal. Presently, he is acting as Prorector for Regional Development and Urban Policies. He holds a PhD in Political Science and is a member of the GOVCOPP, research unit where he has developed research work on governance and local government, territorial reform, political leadership and innovation. Member of the Steering Committee of the LOGOPOL, Coordinator of the Local Governance and Politics Section of the APCP and member of the board of the Research Committee on Comparative Studies on Local Government and Politics (RC05) of the IPSA. Filipe Teles participates in several national and international projects and is the author and co-author of several books and articles in international journals of reference. He has worked in and across different sectors and in the context of his teaching and research activities he has lectured in several universities and countries.

Iván Tosics is an “urban explorer”, eager to find interesting examples and good practices of cities to innovate urban development, for the sake of public interest and keeping the balance between social, environmental and economic interests. He is one of the principals of Metropolitan Research Institute. He has long experience in urban sociology, strategic development, housing policy and EU regional policy issues, publishing widely on these subjects. He is vice chair of the European Network of Housing Research and the Policy Editor of the EURA journal. Between 2011 and 2022 he was one of the Programme Experts (Thematic Pole Managers) of the URBACT programme. He participates also in many other EU-funded research activities, such as Horizon Europe, European Urban Initiative, Interreg, ESPON, and has good links to EU-wide networks, such as Eurocities. He teaches at the University of Pécs, Department of Political Studies, Doctoral School.

Karsten Zimmermann is Professor at the Faculty of Spatial Planning at Technical University of Dortmund where he holds the chair for European Planning Cultures. He is educated as a political scientist and dedicated most of his work to the study of cities and regions. From 2005 to 2012 he was part of the interdisciplinary research centre Intrinsic Logic of Cites (Eigenlogik der Städte) at Technical University of Darmstadt. He is currently involved in a larger research project about knowledge generation in local climate politics. Further research topics include metropolitan governance, planning theory and planning practices in Europe.