Global Cities Research Institute

We are living through a period in which urban living has, for the first time in human history, supplanted rural life. Cities, for all their vibrancy and liveliness, face the growing challenge of providing secure and sustainable places to live.

The Institute was inaugurated in 2006 to bring together key researchers at RMIT University, Australia, working on understanding the complexity of globalizing urban settings from provincial centres to mega-cities. The research is highly collaborative, linking with institutions and people around the world in long-term partnerships.

Focusing on a number of carefully chosen cities and their hinterlands, the Institute engages in cutting-edge and applied research that has real-world consequences for communities, governments and organisations. Our overall aim is to develop interpretations and strategies for building sustainable cities in the world today, thus contributing to the quality of human life and the viability of ecologies in those places.

The Institute's Director is Professor Paul James. Global Cities Research Institute is associated with the UN Global Compact Cities Programme.

For more information visit the RMIT Global Cities Research Institute website.

Research programs

• Climate Change Adaptation
• Community Sustainability
• Globalization and Culture
• Human Security and Disasters
• Sustainable Urban and Regional Futures
• Urban Decision-Making and Complex Systems.

Contact us

Street address:

RMIT University
Building 96, Level 2
17-25 Lygon Street,
Melbourne VIC

Postal address:

RMIT University
Design Research Institute
GPO Box 2476
Melbourne VIC 3001
Australia