NEURUS was established in 1998, when faculty from the Vienna University of Economics and Business, the Humboldt University-Berlin, the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and the University of California at Irvine joined together to develop a new model for internationalizing research and education in the broad field of urban and regional development. Labeled the Network for European-United States Regional and Urban Studies (NEURUS) and funded initially by the U.S. Department of Education, Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education (FIPSE), and the European Commission, Directorate General XXII (Education, Training, and Youth), the effort sought to build a sustainable set of linkages between the consortium partners that could be used to more deeply integrate comparative elements in existing education and research activities.
Almost twenty years after original funding ended, alumni number over 250 students. NEURUS is now essentially "self-funded," in that it has received no extramural continuing financial support from the U.S. Department of Education or European Commission since 2002. Research, exchange and seminar activities are supported by home university units, external research grants supporting specific scholar and student exchanges, national and university sources of travel and exchange support, and the like.
The following are some of the key milestones in the history of NEURUS:
Almost twenty years after original funding ended, alumni number over 250 students. NEURUS is now essentially "self-funded," in that it has received no extramural continuing financial support from the U.S. Department of Education or European Commission since 2002. Research, exchange and seminar activities are supported by home university units, external research grants supporting specific scholar and student exchanges, national and university sources of travel and exchange support, and the like.
The following are some of the key milestones in the history of NEURUS:
- Spring 1998: Faculty at the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill initiate a proposal for funding to the U.S. Department of Education and European Commission. Invitations to join the consortium are issued to UC Irvine, Illinois, Groningen, and Humboldt University Berlin.
- August 1998: NEURUS consortium receives notice of funding award.
- November 1998: Founding consortium members meet in Richmond, Virginia for their first program design meeting. Second and third planning meetings are held in Chapel Hill in January 1999 and in Groningen in May 1999.
- Spring 1999: Consortium partners begin accepting applications for the first academic year of student exchanges.
- August 1999: Students in first NEURUS European student exchange cohort arrive at their host universities in the United States.
- October 1999: First U.S. continental seminar is held in conjunction with the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning annual conference in Chicago, Illinois. NEURUS faculty participate in roundtable conference session, "Sustaining and Expanding NEURUS: International Collaborations and Student Exchanges in Planning."
- January 2000: Students in first NEURUS U.S. student exchange cohort arrive at their host universities in Europe.
- March 2000: First European continental seminar is held in Vienna.
- October 2002: U.S. Department of Education and European Commission funding is exhausted. NEURUS reorganizes to become "self-funded."
- May 2004: First Fulbright-NEURUS Summer Institute is held in Chapel Hill.
- July 2005: Second Fulbright-NEURUS Summer Institute is held in Vienna.
- March 2006: The University of Barcelona, Jönköping International Business School, and the University of Pécs join the consortium. Original student exchange program is renamed the NEURUS Exchange Fellows program. The NEURUS Independent Fellows program, which facilitates highly flexible exchange of advanced doctoral students and scholars, is established.
- Summer 2006: Article evaluating the NEURUS program is published (An Experiment in the Internationalization of Planning Education: The NEURUS Program, by Harvey Goldstein, Scott Bollens, Edward Feser and Christopher Silver, Journal of Planning Education and Research 25: 349-363).
- October 2008: Arizona State University and the University of Florida join the NEURUS consortium.
- March 2009: NEURUS celebrates its tenth year of student exchange and faculty collaboration at the Spring Continental Seminar held in Vienna.
- July 2009: NEURUS partners ASU, Florida, Humboldt, Illinois, RuG, UC Irvine, and WU win EU-US Atlantis funding to establish an International Certificate in Urban and Regional Development (ICURD) program.
- September 2018: We are celebrating twenty years of NEURUS at our seminar in Groningen.
- November 2018: University of Washington joins the NEURUS consortium.
