Impact Case Study: PEAK Urban

Creating and sharing new knowledge for sustainable cities

About

'It's about respecting those different places, respecting these different forms of knowledge... to translate between them and bring them together.'

PEAK Urban supported 40 multidisciplinary projects around the world, employing more than 85 early career researchers internationally, working between Oxford, EAFIT University in Colombia, the University of Cape Town in South Africa, the Indian Institute of Human Settlements in Bangalore and Beijing Da Xue (Peking University) in China. 

 

PEAK Urban's approach centred around four central pillars that guided their research across radically different contexts:

  • Prediction - What can we now forecast about cities?
  • Emergence - What types of urban structures and systems are emerging?
  • Adoption - How do cities adopt new ideas and technologies?
  • Knowledge - How can we create and share knowledge globally and locally?

They explored five key urban themes: city governance, health and wellbeing, sustainable cities, economic growth and migration.

 

What is PEAK Urban and what makes it different from other urban research programmes?

https://www.youtube.com/embed/S7qUV5sYq4U?wmode=opaque&controls=&rel=0

 

 

The Impact

Their research influenced local and national development plans. They participated widely in high-level global events, from the UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) reviews, to COP 26.

They continue to drive high-level international debate and in 2022 launched a new Massive Online Open Course (MOOC) 'Shaping Urban Futures' to enable learners to imagine how they can make a difference to the future cities that will shape tomorrow’s planet.

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