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.

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The core conveners of the Panel are the UCL City Leadership Laboratory, based in UCL’s Department of Science, Technology, Engineering and Public Policy (STEaPP) and Nature Sustainability. The Panel benefits from the support of the UCL Office of the Vice-Provost (Research) and UCL Grand Challenge of Sustainable Cities, as well as the International Council for Science (ICSU), UCL’s Development Planning Unit (DPU), and the Prince of Wales's International Sustainability Unit.

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