Centre for City Futures
The Centre for City Futures (CCF) coordinates and bundles the cooperation between the UNIC universities, the participating cities and other societal stakeholders who aim to jointly address the challenges of post-industrial regions. The CCF team advises and supports researchers and scientists interested in urban cooperation within the UNIC framework and provides guidance to actors in the urban community on how they can benefit from practice-oriented research findings. On 15 December 2025, Ruhr University Bochum will even open a dedicated external office for this purpose at the “Blue Square” in Bochum’s city centre.
The UNIC Centre for City Futures consists of ten local centers that know the specific needs of their region and align their activities accordingly. These local centers are closely linked to each other to facilitate city-related research and learning activities that contribute to local and transnational urban challenges.
All ten centers together form the UNIC Centre for City Futures and are united by a common vision and mission for urban impact, improvement and transformation in Europe.
The aim of the Centre for City Futures is to understand the complex social phenomena in our ten UNIC cities and to develop attractive visions for the future to overcome urban challenges.
Guided by these visions for the future, we develop strategies and build local and transnational partnerships that can contribute to improving society. Our living lab provides pathways and tools for impact-oriented research, education and innovation.
Engaging Cities in Learning and Research
By connecting ten university and urban contexts, we are creating a large-scale transnational living laboratory where UNIC CityLabs provide unique access to innovative data sources and opportunities for challenging learning and citizen-led research.
Our CityLabs work in real-world settings and bridge the gap between theory and practice. They bring together stakeholders from different backgrounds to identify needs and challenges, envision a better future and develop, test and refine solutions.
We strive to incorporate the needs of cities and communities into learning and research. In turn, cities and communities are enriched and improved by the contributions of our researchers, faculty and students. These contributions and actions are consistently evaluated to ensure meaningful societal impact.
In Bochum, the new RUB Centre for City Futures (RUB CCF) will open on 15 December 2025 in the city centre (Blue Square, Kortumstraße 90, 44787 Bochum). Going forward, the RUB CCF will serve as a central point of contact as well as a venue for events and collaboration.
UNIC CityLabs
UNIC CityLabs are physical and virtual meeting places where students, citizens, researchers and urban stakeholders work together to identify and solve societal challenges facing post-industrial, highly diversified cities.
UNIC CityLabs bring science to the city and contribute to the resilience and revitalization of post-industrial city centers in Europe by investigating challenges related to the EU urban agenda.
Topics covered include
- Climate adaptation
- Culture and cultural heritage
- digital transformation
- strategic planning and housing
- Integration of migrants and refugees in cities
- Jobs and skills in the local economy
The CityLabs serve the exploration and development of post-industrial cities through dedicated research.
CityLabs Concept: 3 steps
- Social challenges are identified together with local non-scientific actors, such as the city of Bochum or other local stakeholders.
- In the spirit of challenge-based learning, these challenges and relevant practice partners are integrated into teaching. The students familiarize themselves with the identified challenges, discuss them with the stakeholders and develop ideas for solutions to the challenges.
- The students present their proposed solutions to the practice partners involved and, if applicable, to other stakeholders who may be interested in these solutions.
Cooperation Topics of the City of Bochum
The City of Bochum has identified five areas in which it would like to cooperate with RUB researchers. These are
Challenges on the labor market
- Skills and labor shortages (brain drain), demographic change and the long-term unemployed. First focus: Improved arrival structures for nationally and internationally recruited skilled workers and employees
Transition from nursery to elementary school
- Setting the course for further school and educational careers
Implementation of the sustainability strategy
- Involving citizens in sustainable urban development
Democracy education projects
- Current social developments show how necessary it is to promote and explain democracy to adults again.
Development of a city-wide internationalization strategy
- Involvement of actors in urban society (business, science, civil society)
Of course, cooperation with the city of Bochum on other topics is also possible.
Contact
If you are interested in a cooperation with the city of Bochum or other non-academic actors – whether from Bochum or one of the other UNIC partner cities – and would like to integrate urban challenges into your teaching and research, please contact us by e-mail at
