We are glad to announce TRANSFORMERS, a university dialogue between Germany and Italy, funded by DAAD. 

TRANSFORMERS is about the role and agency of cities to reach climate neutrality, combining this change with social and economic progress. The project focuses on the interrelation and dynamics between urban fabric and society, and establishes a joint search for new transformative knowledge, for cities as laboratories of openness, innovation, and entrepreneurship. It builds on recent research in Italy and Germany and cooperates with three cities as case studies and stages for new formats of open science in communication and involvement.  

TRANSFORMERS as research cooperation aims at new models for the role and agency of cities and is putting the expertise of urban designers, urban planners, and architects under examination: which attitudes, abilities, and approaches do TRANSFORMERS need to initiate, steer, and realise urban transition towards resilience and sustainability? How can urban design, urban planning, and architecture contribute to green economy and digitalisation, and to a cultural change how to understand cities, to project and organise their transition? 

The project TRANSFORMERS is built on the expertise from three universities:  

• the Territorial Design and Urban Planning group from Leibniz University Hannover, with Prof. Jörg Schröder (coordinator), Dr. Federica Scaffidi, Riccarda Cappeller MSc MA, Rebekka Wandt MSc, and Anna Pape MSc;  

• the Urban and Territorial Planning group from Università degli Studi di Palermo, with Prof. Dr. Barbara Lino (coordinator), Dr. Annalisa Contato, Prof. Dr. Daniele Ronsivalle, and with Prof. Dr. Maurizio Carta as special advisor;  

• and the Architectural and Urban Design group from Università Politecnica delle Marche, Ancona, with Prof. Dr. Maddalena Ferretti (coordinator), Dr. Benedetta Di Leo, and with Prof. Dr. Gianluigi Mondaini and Prof. Dr. Paolo Bonvini as special advisors.