After the successful completion of the recruitment, all Early Stage Researchers/PhD candidates joined the first official study trip to France, together with all project beneficiaries and partners.

The programme started in Paris where guest-lecturers Ivonne Audirac, University of Texas-Arlington, and Sergio Moraes, Federal University of Santa Catarina, presented their experience and approach towards the issues of shrinking cities, examining cases from USA and Brazil. In the second part of Paris programme, all participants had the opportunity to understand more about shrinking cities cases from Netherlands and Japan, presented by Maja Rocak, NEIMED and Tetsuji Uemura, Nomura Research Institute.

The PhD candidates had the opportunity to explore the French experience in shrinking cities during the field trip to Le Havre, Normandy, facilitated by Sarah Dubeaux and Prof. Emmanuèle Cunningham-Sabot. After visiting the AURH (Agencie D`urbanisme de la Region du Havre et de`l l`estuaire de la Seine) the project team had the opportunity to explore some areas of the port city, undergoing transformation through the actions of local authorities or bottom-up approaches, such as Hangar 0.

The final days of the stay in France were dedicated to the first official training school for the newly recruited ESRs. The junior researchers had the chance to step into the shoes of directors of documentary films and discover the links and opportunities between research and the art of cinema. Experienced filmmakers Jim McRoberts and Roddy Cunningham guided the PhD candidates through the process of inception, development and creation of documentary films. The participants also had the chance to practice by forming mini-filmmaking crews for their first footage.

With the perfect balance between acquiring knowledge and practice, field exploration and team building, the study trip in France, organized by project beneficiary École normale supérieure (ENS), marked the beginning of the PhD programme and was an inspiring start for all Early Stage Researchers.