“Ion Mincu“ University of Architecture and Urbanism research strategy in the field of disater for protection of natural and built heritage in urban and rural zones

In 2021 a 3 months project with this title, PI the first author, has been funded in the envisaged field A. Revisiting the research strategy of the university – strategic research field. In order to design the strategy in this field, we worked with a template inspired by strategic planning in urban planning. We first reviewed other strategies, such as of the Romanian funding agency, Horizon Europe, and ICCROM. We also reviewed approaches of inter-governmental organisations Romania is part of, other than ICCROM, such as ICOMOS (and the related international scientific committees) or the UN. We looked to centres and their courses in the field. A special attention received the involvement of the civil protection. Our strategy first looked at problems (infrastructure needed) and opportunities (doctorates, including courses at doctorate and masters level, and research projects in the field at the university). The funding opportunities built a separate deliverable, with a learning programme. After this examples of priorities were set. Research objectives and sub-objectives can be formulated according to the discipline, and the project involved indeed six experts from various departments of the university (such as urban and landscape design, technical sciences, architecture design, management of research, and the two doctoral schools, in architecture and urban planning respectively, represented by 5 PhD candidates in the team). The experts could comment on the strategy and show the point of view of their discipline in a conference which took place virtually on 22-23 November 2021 and had over 50 attendants. These objectives are translated in measures packages, which were also exemplified. To these correspond different implementation and consensus means, as well as implementation plans, on different time horizons, also exemplified. This can be best seen in pilot projects. In this case, since it is a strategy for research and not for urban intervention, the focus in choosing pilot projects was on several case studies. At the conference we also had guests: from the university involving other fields (geography), from the Civil engineering University, as well as from abroad (Hungary and Portugal). With the Hungarian Széchenyi István University in Győr there is a memorandum and understanding. Portugal instead built a case study of possible cooperation and future projects. The other pilot was how to write a European project proposal in the field of floods for the city of Giurgiu, based on chief architect experience. The strategy was rounded up by a brief literature list in the field. More about the project and the conference, including programme, here: https://www.uauim.ro/en/research/disasterprotect/