A participatory approach in support of policy development, strategies and plans is fundamental to ensure their relevance, effectiveness and sustainability. The ESPON 2013 Programme would be incomplete and unable to achieve its overall objectives without specific actions aiming at involving policy makers and stakeholders in new European evidence and knowledge developed produced by ESPON.

Capitalising on results making them operational require actions raising awareness and involving stakeholders in the discussions of results and their practical implications and use. Bringing together views of policy makers, practitioners and scientists has been a good experience within the ESPON 2006 Programme, also as dialogue on defining and guiding actions. This holds true for the applied research projects, for targeted analysis and for progressing further the scientific platform.

The ESPON 2013 Programme will ensure the capitalisation of results by addressing mainly two target groups centred at:

  1. The European level involving policy makers in European Institutions and programmes, representatives of Member States dealing with territorial development and relevant sector policies,
  2. Transnational, regional and local policy makers and practitioners involved in the development of territories.

The scientific community related to territorial research will empower the capitalisation of results and be a target by itself in awareness raising activities.

Capitalisation will be supported by the ESPON website and through media activities, such as press releases and a newsletter. In addition, series of different ESPON Reports will synthesise scientific findings, some targeting policy makers, other the European scientific community related to territorial science.

In the transnational context, the capitalization efforts will be done by groupings of ESPON Contact Points that together will carry through Transnational Networking activities. The ESPON Contact Point Network counts all 27 EU Member States as well as Iceland, Norway and Switzerland (covering as well Liechtenstein).