Institute
for Urban
Excellence
Institute for Urban Excellence
We are a non-profit think tank and independent knowledge broker specialising in research, citizen engagement, advocacy, research communication and professional trainings in fields related to the urban.
Having established ourselves as a bridge between urban planning theory and practice, we facilitate the cross-border dissemination and adoption of transdisciplinary knowledge and innovation across sectors, governance levels and communities.
WHAT WE DO
Our work happens in collaboration with an extensive network of partners that we constantly strengthen. We organise our activities in three pillars:
Research - Practice - Academy
Our expertise is centred around core themes to advance sustainability and equity in cities, increase awareness of emerging trends and promote best practices:
THE NATURAL AND BUILT ENVIRONMENT
INCLUSIVITY AND REPRESENTATION
RESILIENCE AND ADAPTATION
GOVERNANCE AND FINANCING
LATEST NEWS AND UPDATES
Welcome to our first update of 2026! We hope that the year has got off to a good start for all of you. We have made a flying start to the year with our current projects, as well as our new SpurUp project, while we successfully closed three of our research projects, UP2030, DUST and JUSTNature project. Furthermore, we are currently developing cooperation activities with international partners, and new project initiatives, especially on capacity-building and technical assistance, are emerging, as well as new topics. We are especially pleased to introduce our new team member, Mariam Jahning, who joined us two weeks ago. We look forward to working with you and wish you continued success in 2026!
Here is our final update of 2025. We hope that the year has been successful for all of you, as it has been for the Institute! We are looking forward to an exciting 2026: we expect to sign new cooperation agreements with international organisations, diversify our activities and launch new projects. 2026 will also be a special year as we will be celebrating our 10th anniversary with a special event in April. This will be an opportunity to reflect on a very successful period, but also to consider the future. We look forward to working with you. Very best wishes and a good start to 2026!!