GCRF: Building capacity for the future city in developing countries (PEAK)

我们建议逐步改变发展中国家城市网络的能力，以解决发展困境并推进新的“城市”可持续发展目标(11)，将前沿研究与新兴大都市的治理挑战联系起来。当代城市是一个重大的发展挑战。世界上的大多数人现在居住在城市，而且这一比例还将迅速增加。所有可持续发展目标都需要在新兴城市实现，并通过了解不同发展挑战的组合，同时实现。为了认识到这一点并应对发展挑战，我们需要结合传统上分散的学科专门知识的见解，并将人文科学、自然科学和社会科学联系起来，形成新的跨学科结构。我们建议“培养”新一代的城市研究人员，舒适地推进这一新的跨学科领域，在以分析当代城市主义而闻名的研究密集型大学的国际合作伙伴关系中工作。来自中国(北京大学)、印度(印度人类住区研究所)、南非(UCT非洲城市中心)和哥伦比亚(EAFIT，麦德林)的全球合作伙伴团队将与牛津大学合作。研究人员的工作涉及自然科学(包括数学、医学、交通和工程学)、社会科学(包括人类学、发展、移民)和人文科学(包括法律、历史)。我们利用牛津大学和艾伦·图灵研究所的专业知识，通过伙伴关系在国际上建设能力，将全球城市干预的战略地点联网，与一批博士后研究员合作，制定一项出色的研究计划。重点是国际化和跨学科。国际网络建立在现有合作的基础上，与城市本身建立了牢固的联系，并建立在卓越研究的记录上。建议的研究使用复杂系统框架来综合我们对未来城市发展的理解。研究侧重于城市和社会物质系统的数据科学机遇，这些系统将在公共卫生复杂干预措施中建立的形式、技术和行为模式、水、食物和能源的关系、非正规性、城市公地、流动性、土地和容纳新人口的必要性联系在一起。嵌入城市本身的研究将建立新的学习、联合生产和能力建设形式，以促进城市可持续发展。为了最大限度地扩大我们工作的影响，五个研究中心将创建一个平台，将在区域上连接拉丁美洲、非洲、印度和中国的相互关联的研究中心、城市实验室和城市天文台。将全球南方的挑战与全球北方的城市未来联系起来的机会将通过伦敦政府和欧洲城市实验室和中心的影响路径的正式链接来解决，并与三个由创新英国资助的弹射器(卫星、交通、城市的未来)联系起来。为了实现可持续发展的全球目标，城市必须从根本上改变发展轨迹，这意味着城市管理实践的重大调整。预计政策制定者将做出如此重大决策的知识库是支离破碎的，但我们将与整个伙伴关系中的城市合作，开发联合生产和知识交流的新模式。所有研究伙伴在与城市本身、城市区域、国家机构和新兴跨国组织，包括人居署、联合国可持续发展解决方案网络(SDSN)和世界银行/联合国机构城市联盟接触和共同创造知识方面都有出色的记录。

We propose to generate a step change in the capacity of a network of cities in developing countries to address development dilemmas and advance the new 'urban' Sustainable Development Goal (11), linking cutting edge research to governance challenges of the emerging metropolis. The contemporary city presents a major development challenge. The majority of the world now lives in cities and the proportion is set to increase rapidly. All SDGs will need to be achieved in emergent cities and through understanding the combination of different development challenges, simultaneously realized. To recognize this and address the development challenges we need to combine the insights of traditionally discrete disciplinary expertise and link the humanities, natural sciences and social sciences in a new interdisciplinary configuration. We propose to 'grow' a new generation of urban researchers comfortable taking forward this new interdisciplinary field, working across an international partnership of research intensive universities renowned for their expertise in analyzing contemporary urbanisms. A global team of partners from China (Peking University), India (India Institute of Human Settlements), South Africa (UCT African Centre for Cities) and Colombia (EAFIT, Medellin) will work together with the University of Oxford. Researchers work across natural sciences (including mathematics, medicine, transport and engineering), the social sciences (including anthropology, development, migration) and humanities (including law, history). We leverage expertise across the University of Oxford and the Alan Turing Institute, building capacity internationally through a partnership networking strategic sites of urban interventions globally, working with a cohort of postdoctoral fellowships to develop a programme of excellent research. The focus is international and interdisciplinary. International networks build on existing collaborations, strong links to cities themselves and on track records of research excellence. Research proposed uses complex systems framing to synthesise our understanding of the development of future cities. Research addresses urban challenges that focus on data science opportunities of the city and socio-material systems that link built form, technology and behavioural pattern in complex interventions in public health, the nexus of water food and energy, informality, the city commons, mobility, land and the imperative to accommodate new populations. Research embedded in cities themselves will build new forms of learning, co-production and capacity building to promote sustainable urban development. To maximize the impact of our work the five centres of research will create a platform that will link regionally to linked research centres, urban labs and city observatories in Latin America, Africa, India and China. The opportunity to link the challenges of the global south to the city futures of the global north will be addressed through formal links to impact pathways in London government and European Urban Labs and centres, liaising with three of the Innovate UK funded Catapults (Satellite, Transport, Future of Cities).In order to meet the global goals of sustainable development cities will have to fundamentally shift developmental trajectories, implying a significant realignment in urban management practice. The knowledge base on which policy makers are expected to make such momentous decisions is fragmented but we will work with cities across the partnership to develop new models of co-production and knowledge exchange. All of the research partners have outstanding records of engagement and coproduction of knowledge with cities themselves, city regions, national bodies and emergent transnational organisations, including UN Habitat, the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) and the World Bank/UN agency Cities Alliance.