What we do
The transformation of cities towards sustainable and inclusive development is a key objective of the New Urban Agenda. There is substantial potential to improve urban access, air quality, safety, and the quality of life in cities along with reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions if an integrated policy approach is applied that combines all intervention areas for urban policy and involves all levels of government. Linking key sectors and actors is a vital step towards an integrated approach that helps decarbonizing urban systems and delivers liveable and accessible cities for all. Testing innovative solutions in urban living labs can be a key steppingstone, transferring these learnings into scaled-up public or private sector actions is then a vital next step towards transformative change.
This partnership focuses on key aspects related to urban transformations and provides a common platform for projects and initiatives for capacity building with a focus on:
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Policy, planning, funding, and financing (public sector)
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Green recovery, business modelling, and start-up support (private sector)
The joint collaboration program provides a structured capacity building, peer-exchange, and learning concept focusing on sectoral linkages between mobility, energy, and resources as well as the socio-economic, institutional, and political aspects that affect the adoption of smart mobility solutions in cities in Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America. This builds a range of partnerships and key projects. While this has been initiated by the Urban Pathways project, it is open to all relevant projects, funded by the International Climate Initiative and other relevant programs in order to sustain partnerships with local and national authorities, and local innovators and to maximize synergies.
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The program brings together professional training, academic studies, and local implementation. Key elements of this partnership program are joint training and capacity building program and a support mechanism for the development, implementation, and scale-up of urban living labs.
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ULLC partners host visiting researchers and facilitate external Masters and PhD theses related to Urban Living Labs, e.g. via programmes such as Urban Design, Urban Management and Urban Planning and Mobility.
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The Center partners co-develop course curricula for low carbon devleopment for four thematic areas - Urban Energy, Mobility, Resources, Digitalisation - in collaboration with the Labs and Hubs in the context of new and on-going projects.
Who we are
The Urban Living Lab Center provides a space for collaboration among implementation oriented projects in the field of urban climate action. This includes international cooperation projects with transformative potential in key urban sectors. This partnership starts with projects funded by the International Climate Initiative and the European Union and reaches also out to other key funders to maximise synergies among projects and foster effectiveness in an effort to boost local climate change mitigation action and foster sustainable development.
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The Urban Living Lab Center is co-hosted by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Technical University Berlin (TUB) and the Wuppertal Institute, building on the collaboration with UN-Habitat. The objective is to build on a range of joint projects and providing the platform for other actors and projects in the field to broaden and sustain the programme. The network of Labs and Hubs is meant to support the implementation of action-oriented urban development projects in Asia, Africa and Latin America, boost synergies and minimise duplications. The founding group acts as initial driver of the partnership and provides resources to the development and coordination of the partnership. The intention is that during the course of the programme activities are integrated in the on-going academic and capacity building work of all partners.