"This program aims at developing joint research and higher education on urban and regional development and planning, bringing together European and Chinese Universities. On the one hand Chinese cities and society are evolving at a very quick pace and Chinese responsible decision makers are aware of the challenge and new issues they are facing. They pay a particular attention to the approaches developed in Europe. On the other hand, European academics traditionally compare their views between themselves and with specialists from all over the world. Obviously, the exceptional experience and the growing importance of China in the global economics and politics gives to cooperation with Chinese universities a particular interest. This exchange programme focuses on spatial planning concept which is gaining in resonance within the EU. In China, spatial planning is among the most important policy means for the government to guide the environmental and social evolution of the world’s biggest and fastest growing country. Within Europe there are very different approaches to managing change within different urban and regional contexts and the same is true within China, where the open door policy has unleashed an unprecedented urban transformation. The role of the project is to explore how policy makers in both Europe and China are managing the rapid transformation of our territories, primarily in urban areas and also in the rural one. The implementation of the programme is based on a networking of four EU universities (Paris 12, Liverpool, Manchester and Utrecht) and one university in China (Nanjing University), which all hold the leading positions in planning education, training and research in their countries. Partners will exchange staff members, junior and PhD researchers around yearly seminars, summer schools or workshops, and symposiums. The core of this network activity is an annual summer school in China and an autumn symposium in China or the EU."