A synthesis of trends for the future of our towns and cities

Overall, this work will help the UKRI IUK Urban Systems team identify where its future strategy may go and where it may be able to use its resources to target certain challenges. It will also allow places to identify where they can have the maximum impact in resolving current and future challenges.

 

The first part of this project is producing a report summarising the work which has already been done looking at the future of our towns and cities and identifying current trends as a result of this synthesis. This streamlined report will identify the key themes and trends. UKRI IUK then expect these trends to be further evaluated within the report, with a more place-specific outlook. This means a taxonomy/classification mechanism of towns and cities being adopted, if a suitable categorisation mechanism already exists, or created. Thereby, each classification will have its key focal themes/trends specified. For the themes and trends, the potential resultant innovation opportunities are to also be identified. These recommendations are to be split into where clear actions could be taken or where further discovery is needed. This shall be tailored to enable UKRI IUK to clearly see what options could be taken.

 

The second part involves the categorisation of urban areas and their most relevant key themes/trends being disseminated in the most appropriate way possible. This will allow places to clearly identify where they fit and consequently which areas to focus on and will provide a valuable resource to help them interpret this.