LSE Cities Executive Director Philipp Rode is today speaking at UN headquarters in New York, as part of the preparatory process for the Habitat III conference in Quito, Ecuador. The Habitat III Open-Ended Informal Consultative Meetings, taking place from April 25 to April 29, provide an opportunity for member states to scrutinise and discuss the policy papers presented to the Habitat III Secretariat by ten expert groups. LSE Cities and United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) are the co-leads of Policy Unit 4, on Urban Governance, Capacity and Institutional Development. The meeting can be viewed live here.

Adam Kaasa is set to speak at What is a connected city?, co-organised by The CUBE London and the Royal College of Art, and Forms of Commoning in London at the Tenderpixel Gallery. At both, he will reflect on lessons learned from the 2015 ideas challenge Designing the Urban Commons, and look forward to this year’s challenge in Rio de Janeiro that will focus on design and ‘respect’ as part of the ongoing research project Designing Politics.

The Urban Age Scholarship is designed to support outstanding candidates wanting to study on the LSE Executive MSc in Cities who cannot access the necessary funds to meet all their costs of study. One of our key priorities for the Executive MSc in Cities is to ensure that it replicates the successful Urban Age model of bringing together stakeholders from as wide a range of contexts as possible and broadening access to knowledge and debate around the way we design and govern our cities. We want to actively promote a student body that brings a diversity of experiences, backgrounds and perspectives to the programme. All applicants to the Executive MSc in Cities, regardless of their professional background, nationality or current residence are eligible to apply for the Urban Age Scholarship, provided they can demonstrate financial need.

Scholarships may be awarded to cover the full cost of tuition, but partial tuition scholarships are also available. The amount of the award will be determined based on a combination of factors, including the quality of applicants and their respective financial needs. For the 2016/2017 academic year up to three full tuition scholarships may be awarded.

The application form for the Urban Age Scholarship and accompanying guidance notes will be available from emc.lsecities.net/urbanagescholarship from Friday, 22 April 2016 and the deadline for submissions is Monday, 6 June 2016 at 12:00 GMT.

In the meantime, you can start your application process for the LSE Executive MSc in Cities here.

The LSE Executive MSc in Cities, made possible through the Urban Age Programme. The Urban Age Programme is a joint initiative between LSE Cities and the Alfred Herrhausen Gesellschaft, the international forum of Deutsche Bank.

Videos from the Disrupting Mobility Summit, which investigated sustainable futures, are now available. The Summit was co-hosted by LSE Cities, the MIT Media Lab, the University of California at Berkeley and InnoZ. Transforming Cities included Edward Glaeser, Harvard University; Adam Greenfield, Urbanscale; Philipp Rode, LSE; Janette Sadik-Khan, Bloomberg Associates; and Anthony Townsend, Bits + Atoms.

Philipp Rode spoke at Data City / Data Nation, an event by Digital Catapult. Rode encouraged delegates to move beyond thinking about transport as an accessibility problem rather than a mobility problem. For more on this research, please see our project on New Mobility Transitions or read our report on Towards New Urban Mobility.

LSE Cities has joined with mayors, city networks and urban stakeholders worldwide to call for an IPCC Special Report on Cities and Climate Change during the IPCC 43rd Session on April 11-13. The proposal for a special IPCC cities-focused report, submitted by the South African government, has received public support from UN-Habitat, as well from the mayors of Rio de Janeiro, Seoul and Istanbul, and international organisations like C40, ICLEI, UCLG, World Climate Research Program, UNESCO and IPCC. You can submit a request to your national government, calling for an IPCC Special Report on Cities and Climate Change, through your country’s  IPCC National Focal Point.

Dr Adam Kaasa, Director of Theatrum Mundi at LSE Cities, gave a paper ‘Blurring Boundaries of Inside and Out: Public Space design in the British Library’ at the Society of Architecture Historians Annual International Conference in Pasadena on 7 April 2016.

Prof Ricky Burdett delivered the keynote address at LafargeHolcimForum’s 5th International Forum 2016 – Infrastructure Space on 7 April. The talk on “Infrastructures of Inequality” highlighted the potential of urban infrastructure to be used as tool for social integration. You can watch the talk here: Ricky Burdett at LafargeHolcim Forum – Keynote Address – Detroit April 2016.

Philipp Rode will deliver the keynote address at the EuroCities Environment Forum. Philipp will also join in on a discussion on planning for sustainable cities. The forum takes place in Utrecht from 6-8 April 2016.