10 February 2018 — Universities have played key roles in building a sustainable urban development agenda through various means, ranging from technical assistance to city governments, direct implementation of university programs and through innovative education and capacity building of key urban actors. In February 2018, the Researchers and Academia roundtable took place as part of the activities in WUF9 in Kuala Lumpur.
During the sessions, participants exchanged experiences and ways to strengthen university collaboration. The Roundtable discussed successful approaches, common features and lessons learned. The roundtable was divided into three sections:
The first section provided a forum for presenting and sharing about existing networks of universities and education bodies who facilitates knowledge-sharing on localising the implementation of sustainable development goals as well as urban development. Section 2 provided some examples of important issues and experience from on-going projects by Melbourne University, London School of Architecture and GIZ. The discussion focused on presenting on-going and successful projects that connect science and future cities’ leader. The last section was a dialogue between three urban development practitioners from international agencies and grassroots-based organisations.