Urban Innovation Policy Lab

Collaborations.

We work with leading universities worldwide, intergovernmental organisations, local and national governments, civil society organisations and private companies. Together, we identify best practice in smart city governance and produce research that cities worldwide can apply.

Working with cities

We help local governments set up smart city governance frameworks that put people first. We start with the problems residents face and work with city officials to decide where AI and other digital technologies can improve public services.

These frameworks set out how residents can shape decisions and who is accountable for carrying them out. We help city officials define what better services would look like so they can assess the results and adapt how they use technology.

Discuss a collaboration
Concept illustration of autonomous cars next to an automated waste collection and urban logistics depot

Collaboration map

Explore the organisations we have collaborated with through our projects and publications. Open an entry to see the work that connects us.

1,266 organisations

Coverage and sources

The map draws on our project records and publications, including the organisations and local governments named in our United Nations reports. Pins show city-level locations. The directory links each organisation to the relevant work. It also includes 23 organisations whose city-level locations could not be verified.

INSPIRE’s published roster names 23 of the 39 announced partners, including Edinburgh Napier University. The map includes the named external partners. INSPIRE project record

Map boundaries from Natural Earth. City coordinates from GeoNames and published location records.

Some examples...

  • UN-Habitat
  • European Commission
  • UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD)
  • CAF – Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean
  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
  • ETH Zürich
  • University College London
  • Delft University of Technology
  • International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
  • UNESCO
  • United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
  • OECD
  • National University of Singapore
  • University of Edinburgh
  • University of Hong Kong
  • University of Washington
  • Monash University
  • The University of Sydney
  • The University of Queensland
  • Seoul National University
  • Kyoto University
  • KU Leuven
  • Aalto University
  • Tallinn University of Technology (TalTech)
  • Scottish Government
  • National League of Cities
  • European Environment Agency (EEA)
  • European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT)
  • FinEst Centre for Smart Cities
  • City of Helsinki

Selected collaborations

UN-Habitat

We worked with UN-Habitat on guidance for local and regional governments and contributed to the World Smart Cities Outlook 2024.

Read the governance playbook

CAF

The Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean worked with our Edinburgh Napier team and UN-Habitat to develop a governance framework for smart city projects.

Read about the joint work

UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD)

We worked with UNCTAD on a report examining how science, technology and innovation can help cities address sustainability challenges after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Read the UNCTAD report

National League of Cities and University of Notre Dame

We helped the National League of Cities and the University of Notre Dame develop research on the role of innovation intermediaries in smart city development in Europe and North America.

Read about the collaboration