Urban policy and urban science are at a critical juncture. Many policymakers and scientists gathered for a once-in-twenty-years opportunity of the Habitat III summit that launched the UN’s New Urban in Quito in October 2016 both reiterated how this momentous occasion was flawed by poor science-policy interfaces. Science, as argued in Nature, is “disparate, marginalized and ill-prepared to interact effectively with global policy”, whilst as other argued evidence-based policymaking is “dysfunctional in many parts of the world.”
To redress these limits and advance the development of more integrated (cross-disciplinary) and policy-engaged research on cities, Nature Sustainability, the new interdisciplinary journal of Nature Research, and the City Leadership Lab at University College London have established a ground-breaking Expert Panel on the urban science-policy interface for global sustainability.
The DPU has been working on the initiative as part of the UCL Grand Challenge of Sustainable Cities programme, with Prof. Adriana Allen contributing as a co-organiser and panel member. The webpage is now live and you can see it here: http://bit.ly/UCL_NSP!