The Ministry of Foreign Affaires (Subdirectorate for Research) has decided to launch incentive concerted action in the field of urban development research in all the countries of the Priority Solidarity Zone (Zone de Solidarité Prioritaire-ZSP). The Urban Development Research Programme (Programme de recherche urbaine pour le développement-PRUD) is conducted by ISTED, as the management agency, and GEMDEV (Groupement d'Intérêt Scientifique pour l'Etude de la Mondialisation et du Développement)), as the scientific leader.

The PRUD has three majors objectives :
· re-activate urban development research based on the renewal of its issues and themes ;
· generate fresh knowledge on urbanization in countries of the south to guide public action in the field of urban development ;
· restore or initiate relations in this field for partnerships and exchanges between the French scientific community and scientific communities in the ZSP.

A call for proposals has been launched in July 2001, organized around two focus areas :
· Intervention in the city. This aims to facilitate the development of knowledge on urban planning and management projects, and on how they are designed and implemented ;
· Actor's logics and strategies that emerge from intervention in the city. This concerns methods of analysing urban planning and management measures.

The Scientific Committee selected 32 research teams among 96 proposals.
One of the original features of the PRUD is that it has provided for mid-term four regional meetings with representatives of the programme research teams (Hanoi, Rabat, Havana and Dakar). It will ended with a final seminar in Paris, 5-7 May 2004.