China-UK Research Cooperation

From the beginning, there has been extensive collaboration within Urban Transformations between the UK and Chinese research institutions. In 2015, the ESRC and National Natural Science Foundation (NNSF) of China Newton Call for Collaborative Research – Urban Transformations in China opened, with three projects were subsequently awarded ESRC funding. These included:

• • Mental health, Migration and the Chinese Mega-city
  • Eco-Urbanisation: Promoting Sustainable Development in Metropolitan Regions of China
  • The Re-Making of Chinese Urban Neighbourhoods: Socio-Spatial Transformation and Access to Public Services

An overview of the projects, with some insights from the Principal Investigators of each project, can be accessed here. There were many other projects also included in the wide Urban Transformations portfolio, with a total of around 20 projects including a strand of China-focused research, such as the projects that came out of the JPI Urban Europe and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) Sustainable and Liveable Cities and Urban Areas Call in 2018. in 2018, Urban Transformations co-hosted a workshop in Beijing, ‘City Futures and Contemporary Urban Research‘ with the Kaifeng Foundation, featuring various Urban Transformations projects focusing on China.

Some of the partnerships and activities developed during this phase have also been built on by the large, multidisciplinary Building Capacity for the Future City in Developing Countries (PEAK), an innovative international urban research programme that focuses on cities in South Africa and the UK as well as China, Colombia and India.