News on the Program

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  • International Urban Health Summit (IUHS)

The International Urban Health Summit (IUHS)  took place in Hannover-Herrenhausen from 9 to 11 April 2025. Here, experts discussed solutions to promote urban health.

The IUHS aims to bring together researchers and practitioners to address key urban health issues based on the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

Organisers of the conference:

Main topics of the plenary sessions:

    1. Urban Planning & Governance
    2. Built Environment & Urban Health
    3. Natural Environment, Climate Change & Urban Health
    4. Public Engagement & Urban Decision Making
    5. AI & Urban Health
    6. Education & Urban Health
    7. Wrap up, next steps & closing remarks.

The plenary sessions were complemented by breakout sessions, incl. ‘ART goes Urban Health’, ‘Nature Therapy’ and a poster session.

The final program is available here.

The research program ‘City of the Future – Healthy and Sustainable Metropolises’, funded by the Fritz and Hildegard Berg-Foundation, was involved in the conference. Members of the advisory board and the network gave lectures, contributed to the conference preparation and chaired sessions:

    • Plenary Session 1 “Urban Planning and Governance”
      • Chair: Rainer Fehr, Medical Faculty OWL, University of Bielefeld
      • Heike Köckler, Bochum University of Applied Sciences / Academy for Territorial Development in the Leibniz Association (ARL), Bochum
    • Breakout Session 1-A “Urban Planning for Equity and Resilience of Cities”
      • Chair: Heike Köckler, Bochum University of Applied Sciences / Academy for Territorial Development in the Leibniz Association (ARL), Bochum
      • Lisa Waegerle, University of Applied Sciences in Bochum, Germany, and Julia Espinoza, Founder of the self-managed housing cooperative “Luchadores de Lo Hermida” in Santiago de Chile, Chile: Health justice through self-organized structures in urban planning: The example of dignified housing projects in Santiago de Chile
    • Breakout Session 1-B “Addressing Implementation Gaps”
      • Chair: Samuel Gachohi Njuguna, UN-Habitat, Nairobi, Kenya; and Claudia Hornberg, Faculty of Medicine OWL, University of Bielefeld (substituted by Rainer Fehr).
      • Julius Freymüller, University of Bielefeld, Germany: Good Governance for urban greening and human health – An explorative review
      • Anne-Lisa Heye, University Applied Sciences, Bochum, Germany: The Innovations Community Urban Health (ICUH) Project

Further information on the contributions to the research program can be found here

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  • Call for junior research groups by the funding program “City of the Future – Healthy, Sustainable Metropolises”

The Fritz und Hildegard Berg-Foundation is opening the submission regarding a junior research group within the funding program “City of the Future – Healthy, Sustainable Metropolises”. The junior research group should aim to link the sustainability goals defined in the UN 2030 Agenda: Health and Well-being (Goal 3) and Sustainable Cities and Communities (Goal 11).

Funding is provided for junior research groups that develop outstanding strategies and concepts in a practice-oriented manner at the interface between science and society and in the context of their interdisciplinary research work. This is to be achieved by encouraging interdisciplinary dialog within the spirit of a new scientific culture.

The application deadline was May 6, 2024.
Further information and notes on the call for applications can be found here (in German).

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  • Publication of the supplement volume “Sustainable Urban Health”

In November 2023, originating from our research program, the supplement volume “Sustainable Urban Health” was published in the scientific journal Das Gesundheitswesen.

The supplement first presents the research program with its program components and underlying concepts. The other contributions are thematically focused position papers, which first outline the basics and current state of knowledge and then describe current challenges and possible solutions. One focus of the position papers is on recommendations aimed at scientific institutions and research funding as well as cities, municipalities and districts. Curricular cornerstones for training and further education are also named. The position papers are based, among other things, on four working papers that were produced in the context of the 7th “City of the Future” conference. The contributions to the supplement volume are as follows:

    • Sustainable Urban Health (Editorial)
    • Research funding program “City of the Future – healthy and sustainable metropolises”
    • Sustainable urban health as an approach for thought and action
    • Urban epidemiology as an integrative approach for sustainable, health-promoting urban development
    • Urban green and urban blue in climate change
    • Urban planning, urban initiatives and health
    • Mobility and urban health

All contributions to the supplement volume are freely available digitally here (in German).

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is available here.

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  • Results of the tender for the “City of the Future
    – Healthy and Sustainable Metropolises” funding program: Institute for Urban Public Health (InUPH) in Essen (GER)

05.05.2020: New institute researches influence of urban planning on the health of residents

The Medical Faculty of the University of Duisburg-Essen has founded the Institute for Urban Public Health (InUPH) at the University Hospital Essen. In the future, it will conduct systematic and cooperative research there into the influence of the urban environment on people’s health and how it can be optimally designed. Over a period of 5 years, the establishment of the institute will be supported with 750,000 EUR by the Fritz and Hildegard Berg Foundation in the Stifterverband. (Source; a highly abbreviated version of the article has been published by Informationsdienst Wissenschaft (idw) under the title: “Institut für Urban Public Health: Wie Stadtplanung die Gesundheit beeinflusst” / “Institute for Urban Public Health: How urban planning influences health”)

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04.05.20: „Institut forscht zur Gesundheit von Großstadtmenschen“ (WAZ)

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Institute for Urban Public Health

The Centre for Urban Epidemiology (CUE) was transformed into the Institute for Urban Public Health (InUPH) on 01.05.2020. The support of the Fritz and Hildegard Berg Foundation enables the establishment of the institute, whose overall goal is to investigate scientific issues for an evidence-based, participatory design of a health-promoting and sustainable urban environment. (Source)

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In 2019, the Center for Urban Epidemiology (CUE) was successful in the selection process of the funding program „City of the Future – Healthy, Sustainable Metropolises: New Ways to Dialogue between Science and Civil Society“ of the Fritz and Hildegard Berg-Foundation.
The funds will be used to support the establishment of a new institute at the Medical Faculty in Essen, which will specifically address the inter- and transdisciplinary tasks for the innovative thematic field of Urban Public Health. (Source)

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Further press releases on the Institute for Urban Public Health (InUPH)