ARUACoE

ARUA CoE Urbanization and Habitable Cities 

The Centre for Excellence for Urbanization and Habitable Cities is a platform for bringing together researchers from other African Countries to address salient and often intractable problems associated with urbanization in African Cities. It has been awarded to the centre under the auspices of the African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA).

Our

Vision

Vision Statement

To be the hub for world class, interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary, applied research on urbanization and habitable cities; connecting researchers for the purpose of initiating, developing, disseminating and affecting change in Africa’s cities.

Mission Statement

To attract, through collaborative actions; active researchers and funders, across all cadres, from within and outside Africa, that would work together with stakeholders from academia, private sector, government, and non-government organizations to solve the diverse problems evident in African cities.

Our

Mission

Background

The CoE has been designed around seven thematic areas which are organized as research clusters to attract and sustain funding for active catalytic research.  Each Cluster is composed of work groups in relevant sub-thematic areas. Using already established networks and future collaborations with ARUA Institution partners, the cluster will initiate, absorb and sustain strong platforms for the utilization of research outputs in these research areas, while providing strategic opportunities for ensuring the growth of early career researchers, postgraduate students and undergraduate students across Africa.

Under the dynamic leadership of its Director, Prof Timothy Nubi, with a core theme of experts, themselves experienced researchers and mentors well-grounded in the integration of the principles of sustainable development in their key areas of expertise, the CoE will establish a high visibility for Africa’s peculiar urbanization issues and offer profound, workable solutions for ensuring that Africa’s urbanization leads to generative, habitable cities rather than dysfunctional cities.

Objectives

i. To develop a collaborative, interdisciplinary network of African researchers capable of producing knowledge and interventions to address seemingly intractable issues in Africa’s urban areas. 
ii. To promote rigorous networking through co-hosting of, and participation in capacity building and professional development programs such as workshops, masterclasses, seminars, conferences, webinars, exhibitions, panels and amongst others
iii. To advance impactful education and capacity-building for post graduate researchers through targeted mentorships by way of doctoral and post-doctoral fellowships and research interactions with leading researchers in Africa and the UK.
iiii. To improve the competitiveness of African researchers by linking them to researchers in continental and global networks 
v. To foster collaborations with research end-users in industry, civil society and policy sectors to develop capacity for impactful research. 
vi. To provide outlets for African research activities to enhance knowledge and understanding of African problems and to promote the adoption of local led solutions. 
vii. To provide a platform for knowledge and information brokerage and sharing on issues in Africa.

Pioneering African Universities

African Research Universities Alliance

Hub-Spoke-Outreach

CoE Research Clusters

The Network’s activities are anchored on its host Centre of Excellence which has eight multidisciplinary research clusters. These clusters carry out knowledge co-production in research, advocacy and capacity building programmes.