Writtle University College and ARU have merged. Writtle’s full range of college, degree, postgraduate and short courses will still be delivered on the Writtle campus. See our guide to finding Writtle information on this site.

Future Cities Research Network

Our Future Cities Research Network aims to investigate and generate best practice and policy-relevant evidence to understand and effectively respond to the complex urban challenges for sustainable and resilient urban futures.

The network brings together PhD researchers and academic, teaching and research staff from across our School of Engineering and the Built Environment and beyond.

From climate change and resilience to smart cities, integrated urban infrastructure, engineering, technology, health sciences, society and culture, planning and architecture, our research in FCRN cuts across the expertise of our Faculty, to identify and seek solutions to the wide range of complex sustainability related problems associated with current and future cities, both in the UK and globally.

Our Future Cities Research Network (FCRN) is to undertake a range of fundamental and problem solving research that seeks to better understand the challenges faced by the built environment and develop innovative solutions that support the transformation of the built environment to address the societal challenges of the 21st century
Prof Keith Jones

The approach FCRN takes to research is grounded in the multidisciplinary work with industry, third sector organisations and policy makers, using collaborative research methodologies that treat end users as partners in the research process and not as subjects to be studied. In this way the findings from FCRN projects have immediate relevance and impact on the societal issues they are addressing.

FCRN is intrinsically multidisciplinary and our research focuses on the following key themes:

Throughout the year the FCRN hosts and supports a range of activities, including invited lectures and lunchtime seminars, collaborative workshops and training and mentoring opportunities.

We offer our Engineering and the Built Environment PhD, and a range of innovative research project opportunities for postgraduate researchers.

If you would like to find out more about our research, please contact Prof Keith Jones.