- As a top 10 UK university, Lancaster University has an international reputation for the outstanding quality of its interdisciplinary research on sustainability, resilience, urbanisation and food sector. It is also one of the very few UK universities that have established liaison with China ever since the 1970s. The main applicant organisation, Pentland Centre for Sustainability in Business, is a world-class hub for transdisciplinary research on sustainability, particularly on sustainable and resilient supply chain management. It will use its cross-faculty, university-wide network to lead WP2 and WP4, while providing research and managerial support across all WPs. Moreover, it has extensive access and excellent experience working with the business stakeholders, especially global food giants such as Nestle, Unilever, Olam and so on. This project will also involve researchers from Lancaster University China Centre, which will not only contribute to WP4, but also provide administrative support in project coordination, event management, logistics, and so on.
- The Dutch Research Institute for Transitions (DRIFT) at Erasmus University Rotterdam is the leading international institutes in the field of sustainability transitions and urban governance. DRIFT has many years of experience, and a strong track record in research on sustainability transitions, social innovation and governance on various scales; spanning from neighbourhood level to global studies. DRIFT has been involved in local, national and international projects concerned with energy, water, food, urban areas, and other utility sectors. DRIFT has outstanding research experience and expertise in transdisciplinary research for urban sustainability transitions by participating in European Commission funded projects in the FP7 framework (such as FP7 InContext, Interreg MUSIC, RESHARE, Biodiversa URBES) and the awarded FP7 projects ARTS, IMPRESSIONS and SUSTAIN). It is also leading breakthrough research about Global Urban Sustainability with the World Bank (WB – Global public goods for urban sustainability transitions, 2012- 2013). In addition to the institute’s research expertise, DRIFT will also bring on board of this project, its extensive stakeholder network with sustainable urbanisation in the Netherlands, Europe and beyond.
- The Institute of Urban Environment (IUE), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) was established on July 4, 2006. It is China’s only national institute engaging in interdisciplinary studies on urban sustainability. IUE conducts both fundamental and applied research at the cutting edge of environmental and resource sciences, as well as technological development of environmental remediation and waste management. It explores the impact of urbanisation on natural systems and social economy, and inspects the structures, processes, functions and patterns of urban ecosystems. The Urban Ecological and Environmental Planning and Management Centre will lead this project as the China coordinator. The Centre’s primary research focuses on the interconnectedness between urbanisation and globalisation, and the theoretical and practical approaches for sustainable urban planning, which makes the IUE team an ideal leader for WP1. The Centre will also provide support to the rest of WPs through its research themes in urban ecosystem capacity, urban environmental policy, urban risk management, etc.
- The Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography of the Chinese Academy of Sciences is a leading research institute of environmental studies in Northwest China – part of China’s least developed area. It hosts the National Key Laboratory of Desert and Oasis Ecology, the National Center of Technology for Desert and Oasis Engineering, and two Regional Key Laboratories: The Key laboratories of Xinjiang Regional Sustainable Development Analysis and Simulation Institute and Xinjiang Remote Sensing and Geographic Information system.