1. UNIVERSITY-FOCAL, LOCAL URBAN OR PROVINCIAL FOCUS
| Name | Location | Geographical Focus | Analytical Focus |
| Canadian Urban Forest Research Group | Dalhousie University | Canada | The research focus is on urban-forest ecology, sociology, management, and policy. |
| Centre for City Ecology | Toronto | Toronto | Research focuses on neighbourhood research with residents. |
| Centre for Urban Economics and Real Estate | Sauder School of Business University of Vancouver | British Columbia | This centre aims to advance the research and teaching of urban economics and real estate within the province. |
| Institute for Canadian Urban Research | Simon Fraser University | British Columbia | The focus is on criminology and safe cities in BC. |
| Urban System Environmental Design | University of Guelph | Guelph | The research focus is on minimising the environmental impact of urban settings (NSERC supported) |
2. MULTI-FOCAL, LOCAL URBAN OR PROVINCIAL SCALE
| Name | Location | Geographical Focus | Analytical Focus |
| Centre for Urban Research and Education | Carleton University | Ottawa | This centre conducts and facilitates collaborative research to address current and emerging urban priorities and issues, such as community governance, citizen engagement and local capacity building, as well as taxes and public spending around planning for infrastructure to support social, economic, and environmental sustainability. |
| City Region Studies Centre | University of Alberta | Alberta | The focus is on city-region research in Alberta. |
| Institute of Urban Studies | University of Winnipeg | Winnipeg | This is an academic and an applied research centre, committed to examining urban development issues in a broad, non-partisan manner. The Institute examines inner city, environmental, Aboriginal and community development issues. |
| Urban Aboriginal Knowledge Network (UAKN) | Ottawa | Canada | The goal of the Urban Aboriginal Knowledge Network is to be a durable research infrastructure that focuses attention on urban Aboriginal concerns and contributes to a better quality of life for Aboriginal people living in cities and towns. |
3. MULTI-FOCAL, GLOBAL SCALE
| Name | Location | Geographical Focus | Analytical Focus |
| Urbanisation Culture Société Research Centre, INRS | Montreal | Montreal | This centre has four research foci: 1. Space, territory, and the city: studying societies through the prism of space; 2. Time and change: following the dynamic movement of societal anchoring; 3. The individual in relations and places of belonging: understanding the conditions of living together; 4. Symbols, representations, and values: how does culture shape the lives of individuals in society. |
| Canadian Urban Institute (CANURB) | Toronto | Global | This independent institute conducts research on a range of issues including; energy mapping; integrated water mapping, regional competitiveness, urban mobility, rethinking suburban development; and cultural resource mapping. |
| Cities Centre (formerly the Centre for Urban and Community Studies) | University of Toronto | Global | This centre has conducted research on a range of issues including: urban planning, governance and management; affordable housing and housing policy; environmental planning; public policy; urban transportation and infrastructure; urban education and health; local economic development and budgeting; information systems and data management; and human rights issues in relation to urban development. |
| Global Cities Institute | University of Toronto | Global | The new Global Cities Institute houses the University of Toronto’s Global City Indicators Facility (GCIF), as an anchor program, as well as a new Model Cities Theatre and Lab. The Global Cities Institute convenes collaborative, cross-disciplinary research that builds on the GCIF metrics and bridges the fields of urban governance, design, technology and economics. |
| Name | Location | Geographic Focus (Global, State, City, US, etc.) | Analytical Focus |
| Comparative Urban Studies Project | The Wilson International Center for Scholars Pennsylvania | Global | CUSP works to bring attention to comprehensive urban policies that can harness the energy of urban growth and diversity to create sustainable, equitable, and peaceful cities. Building on its work in this area, the centre examines the latest research and activity from the field to better understand the conditions that foster empowerment, resilience, and sustainability in the urban environment. |
| National Center for Suburban Studies | Hofstra University New York | Global | The goal of the center is to identify, analyze, and solve the problems of suburbia, especially in areas of sustainability, social equity, and economic development. |
| Penn Institute for Urban Research | University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia | Global | The Penn Institute for Urban Research is dedicated to advancing cross-disciplinary urban-focused research, instruction, and civic engagement on issues relevant to cities around the world. It focuses on research that informs the sustainable and inclusive 21-century city. By providing a forum for collaborative scholarship and instruction at Penn and beyond, it stimulates research and engages with urban practitioners and policymakers to inform urban policy. |
| The Now Institute | Culver City California | Global | The past 10 years of research has addressed issues of rapid growth, disaster resilience, cultural identity, sustainability and mobility in post-industrial, emerging and developmental contexts, encompassing cities like Los Angeles, Madrid, Beijing, New Orleans and Port-au-Prince. |
| The Urban Land Institute | Washington, DC | Global | A multidisciplinary real estate forum, ULI facilitates an open exchange of ideas, information, and experience among industry leaders and policy makers dedicated to creating better places. Research areas include: economy and capital, housing, infrastructure and transit, climate and energy, leadership, planning and design. |
| Center for Urban Research and Policy | Columbia University New York | United States | The mission of the Center for Urban Research and Policy is to: create a more informal national dialogue about the challenges and successes of our nation’s urban policies and programs; advance research and curriculum on pressing urban issues; prepare and train students to pay a greater role in improving cities; promote the participation of urban residents, particularly women and minorities, in policy determination at the local, state, and national levels; and provide public officials and community leaders with new tools for management and policy analysis. |
| California Centre for Sustainable Communities | UCLA California | United States | The California Center for Sustainable Communities’ approach is based on the concept of Urban Metabolism. Urban Metabolism provides an umbrella framework to begin to ask how elements of a city interact and perform, and which inputs and waste outputs most challenge the ability of cities to become more sustainable. Critical issues include current urban government and governance and land use patterns. The California Center for Sustainable Communities’ research aims to integrate and synthesize sustainability science from a variety of disciplines to begin to develop innovative solutions. |
| The Cyberhood | Urban Affairs Association and Centre for Urban Studies University of Buffalo New York State | United States | The Cyberhood’s mission is to encourage critical thinking about the plight of communities of color, conditions in the inner city, and the problems of low-wage white workers. The website’s goal is to connect students, scholars, practitioners, and activists from across the racial and class divide in order to build meaningful relationships. The building of such connections, we believe, will strengthen the struggle to understand and transform inner cities and the metropolitan regions of which they are a part. |
| The Institute for Urban Policy Research and Analysis | University of Houston Texas | United States | The focus is on strong policy research and a desire to promote the production of policy-relevant research with the aim of enhancing the lives of African Americans and other communities of colour. |
| The Institute for Urban and Regional Research | The University of California Berkeley, CA | United States | The Institute of Urban and Regional Development conducts collaborative, interdisciplinary research and practical work that helps scholars and students understand the dynamics of communities, cities and regions while informing public policy at the local, state and national levels. |
| University Center for Social and Urban Research | University of Pittsburgh Pennsylvania | United States | The centre promotes scholarly analysis of urban and regional problems through multidisciplinary research. Our projects and services further our understanding of the causes and consequences of economic and social change. Our emphasis is on major economic and demographic trends in the Pittsburgh region in a national context. |
| The Centre for Urban Research | CUNY, New York | New York | The centre’s main areas of research include: immigration and migration, housing and neighbourhood change, labour market trends, economic development, demographic trends, crime, and political participation. |
| Institute for Urban Research | Morgan State University Baltimore, MD | Maryland | This centre undertakes research, compiling statistical data, land use surveying, etc., to make presentations to public and private agencies, as well as community groups. The research interests include health and health care, community development and revitalization, substance abuse, environmental justice, law enforcement, transportation, education and families. |
| Kinder Institute for Urban Research | Rice University Houston, Texas | Houston, Texas | Scholars study both macro changes in the economic, demographic, and socio-cultural patterns of large metropolitan regions, and the micro experiences of life in local neighborhoods and communities. |
| The Regional Institute | University at Buffalo The State University of New York New York State | Buffalo, New York | The UB Regional Institute provides objective analysis to drive crucial decisions for its public, private and nonprofit clients in the Buffalo Niagara region and beyond. Drawing on diverse experience and a deeply rooted passion for independent research and public engagement, the Institute generates clear, actionable insights that advance communities and organizations. |
| William S. Breslin Centre for Real Estate Studies | Hofstra University Hempstead New York State | United States | This is an interdisciplinary center for the study of real estate that brings together the expertise of Hofstra’s Frank G. Zarb School of Business and the School of Law, as well as the Institute of Real Estate at Hofstra University. The center provides real estate professionals, municipal officials, developers and the public with information, education and scholarly analysis about the complex issues important in the real estate field. |
| Name | Location | Geographical Focus (Global, City, Country, etc.) | Analytical Focus | |
| UK & EUROPE | ||||
| UCL Urban Laboratory | University College London, UK | Global | Our activities currently focus on five key areas: housing and dishousing; ecology and metabolism; change and crisis; imagination and design; and data and place. | |
| Centre for Urban and Public Policy Research | University of Bristol Bristol, UK | Global | The Centre examines policy areas that affect us all in day-to- day life ranging from housing and neighbourhoods to health care, family policy to social justice, health inequalities to domestic violence, child welfare to social care for older people, poverty to social work, governance to criminology. We influence and challenge policies implemented by governments and institutions by looking at issues such as how we organise services for children and families, provide housing and health care for older people, develop our cities and neighbourhoods, and how effectively we provide social care and services for the vulnerable. | |
| Centre For Urban Research | University of York, York, UK | Global | The centre focuses on research that show how conditions of economic uncertainty and the selective distribution of financial benefits have given rise to a new context in which the vitality and creativity of certain urban economies and spaces contrasts markedly with disadvantaged urban districts and even entire towns and cities that have experienced declining populations, social and economic divestment and spatial dereliction. Rising levels of urban poverty and inequality and increasing incidents of racism and intolerance — particularly towards minority groups and migrants — add to the perception that cities are becoming fractured through social exclusion, segregation, uneven access to services and municipal retrenchment, and that these factors are generating major stresses that now test contemporary citizenship and the ‘right to the city’. | |
| Geddes Institute for Urban Research | University of Dundee, Dundee, Scotland | Global | The centre’s aim is to provide a focal point and forum for urban research within the University. The purpose of the Institute is to bring together researchers from disciplines from across the University with interests in urbanism, and to bring together the different research cultures/methodologies represented by these disciplines, in particular the social science research methodologies of geography, sociology, and planning with the creative practice led research methodologies of architecture, art, and the design disciplines. | |
| Global Urban Research Centre (GURC) | School of Environment & Development, University of Manchester, UK | Global | This is a multidisciplinary centre that focuses on global urbanization, poverty, inequality and exclusion. | |
| Global Urban Research Unit | Newcastle University, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK | Global | Their work is primarily focused on developing a better understanding of place and its potential transformation. Our work is theoretically informed but applied, inter-disciplinary, and internationally focused. GURU’s work is organised around four over-lapping themes: Cities, Security and Vulnerability; Cities and International Development; Planning and Environmental Dynamics; and Power, Place and Materiality. | |
| LSE Cities | London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK | Global | Its mission is to study how people and cities interact in a rapidly urbanising world, focussing on how the design of cities impacts on society, culture and the environment. | |
| The Centre for Urban Conflicts Research | The University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK | Global | This is an interdisciplinary centre based in the Department of Architecture, University of Cambridge. With the majority of today’s conflicts now taking place in cities, the problem has been recognised as one that requires more research and better understanding in both matters of policy and practice. UCR is dedicated to investigating cities that experience extreme or particular conflicts, including those caused by ethnicity, nationalism, religion, class or race. Deriving from an architectural and spatial approach to the city, the Centre has expertise in understanding the relationship between policy and planning issues and everyday life. It is particularly concerned with the possibilities for resilience and long term urban transformations. UCR’s activities focus on four main areas: research, consultation, communication and education. | |
| The Institute for Housing, Urban and Real Estate Research | Heriot-Watt University Edinburgh, UK | Global | There are three research foci at the Insitute: the Centre for Research into Socially Inclusive Services; Housing; and Property Economics and Investment. | |
| Centre for the Built Environment (CEBE) | Leeds Metropolitan University, Leeds, UK | UK | We find that buildings do not perform as well as they were predicted to do in their initial design energy model calculations: there is a Performance Gap. We aim to see how construction can close this Performance Gap. | |
| Centre for Urban Studies | University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands | Global | This centre focuses on a range of social questions in urban context and on the ways in which urban processes drive societal change. Much of the research maintains a focus on comparative urbanism in global perspective and involves cities urban trends around the world. The Centre’s researchers share interests in some key themes including diversity and integration, planning and design, mobility, urban sustainable development, governance, migration, citizenship and representation, identity and belonging, and the dynamics of the urban system at regional and global scales. | |
| European Institute for Comparative Urban Research (EURICUR) | Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands | Global | The European Institute for Comparative Urban Research aims to gain a deeper understanding of how cities develop and how they are managed. To that end Euricur initiates and carries out studies on strategic urban issues in response to the challenges cities and metropolitan regions face. | |
| Centre for Metropolitan Studies | Technische Universität Berlin, Germany | Global | The Center currently focuses on the topics of metropolis and mobility, suburbanization and urban renewal, cultural economies and cultural innovation processes. We view current problems such as security in cities, segregation and polarization from a historical perspective to uncover possible solutions for the present. Historical analysis sharpens our view of the twenty-first-century metropolis. | |
| The Urban Research Institute (URI) | Tirana, Albania | Central Eastern Europe | The research foci involve: consulting and project management, including legislation, public finance, infrastructure financing and institutional matching and upgrading; housing, land and infrastructure development; and urban management and decentralisation. | |
| AUSTRALIA | ||||
| Centre for Urban and Regional Studies | University of Newcastle, Australia | Global | We explore the challenges confronting urban and regional governance and the prospects for creating just and sustainable urban and regional communities, economies and environments. We do this from geographical and interdisciplinary perspectives. Through basic, applied and community-engaged research CURS’ researchers produce theoretically informed and empirically grounded understandings of: the dynamics of urban and regional transformations; the ways diverse locations, institutions and communities negotiate the challenges and opportunities posed by these transformations; and we contribute to learning to foster innovative governance and community responses. | |
| Urban Research Program | Griffith’s University Nathan, Queensland, Australia | Australia | Research foci include: urban governance; sustainable transport; rural and peri-urban landscape management; housing systems and processes; infrastructure; climate change adaptation and human settlements; healthy communities; sustainable urban and regional economies; and liveable and equitable human settlements. | |
| Centre for Urban Research | Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University, Melbourne, Australia | Australia | The Centre conducts research on three intersecting themes: housing and homelessness; urban and regional planning; and sustainability and climate change. | |
| Centre for Population and Urban Research | Monash University, Victoria, Australia | Australia | The centre addresses significant issues in the fields of population movements, urban planning, family formation, education and the labour market. | |
| AFRICA | ||||
| African Centre for Cities | University of Cape Town, South Africa | Africa | The African Centre for Cities (ACC) is an interdisciplinary research and teaching programme at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, focused on quality scholarship regarding the dynamics of urbanization processes in Africa, with an eye on identifying systemic and sustainable responses. | |
| African Centre of Excellence for Studies in Public and non-motorised transport | University of Cape Town, South Africa | Africa | This is a collaborative research centre focusing on the development and governance of passenger transport systems in African cities. ACET aims to empower researchers in Africa to set their own research agendas and engage directly with urban transport challenges on this continent. | |
| Centre for Urban Research and Innovation (CURI) | University of Nairobi, Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Nairobi, Kenya | Africa | This initiative seeks to create a forum for exploring innovative methodologies for enabling planners and professionals in the built environment disciplines to be more responsive and effective in addressing urban challenges in contemporary and future African urban settings. | |
| The City Institute at WITS | University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa | Global | Research programmes at the City Institute build an understanding of changing social forms in cities, and factors contributing to their development and decline. The Institute explores how cities can foster development, democracy and peace, with research programmes exploring their physical, social and economic construction. | |
| ASIA | ||||
| TATA Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai | Sir Dorabji TATA Trust, Mumbai, India | Global | The research portfolio of urban poverty and livelihoods has four sub-thematic areas of engagement: internal migration; informal sector livelihoods; urban planning and governance; and employability. | |
| Urban Research Centre | Bangalore, India | Global | The centre conducts socially relevant research to contribute to a responsible civil society for responsive governance in urban areas. | |
| South Asian Urban Research Network (SAURN) | Institute of Governance Studies, Dhaka, Bangladesh | South Asia | Urban research in the wake of rapid urbanization has three policy dimensions that are imperative to ensure all citizens have adequate living conditions: urban planning, urban development strategies and urban governance. | |
| The Fukuoka Asian Urban Research Institute (URC) | Fukuoka, Japan | Asia | This institute is dedicated to the study of urban policy and to urban strategies for the future extending its perspective of research and study further to the Asian region. The Center is making unprecedented efforts to build a multidirectional network, exchange and disseminate information, and at the same time assume a coordination function for linking together various sectors. |