About ERSA

The European Regional Science Association

ERSA is the supranational grouping of national regional science associations across Europe. Members of the Regional Science Association are academics, policy professionals and researchers interested in spatial economics and planning, regional and local development and related issues. They are drawn largely from the disciplines of economics, geography and planning. There are presently 17 active associations, some, such as the German or French speaking sections, organised on linguistic groupings and covering more than one country. Constituent associations range in size from more than 700 members to 27. The largest sections have their own national professional organisers. In total ERSA has some 3500 members in its constituent associations.

The main functions of ERSA, apart from promoting the field of regional science, are to organise an annual European Congress and an annual Summer School. Both these events have been growing in size and professionalism over the past 10 years. Attendance at Congresses has grown consistently over time and some 1250 abstracts for papers have been submitted for the Congress held in Liverpool 2008. The Summer Schools are presently supported by the European Commission’s Marie Curie programme.