Smart and Inclusive Cities Lab

Addressing complex, system-based challenges around the transition to sustainability and net zero
Smart cities viewed through technology
The Lab seeks to address critical global challenges using smart technologies in a place-based approach to deliver an equitable, sustainable, and resilient future for all.
 
The Smart and Inclusive Cities Lab aims to address complex, system-based challenges around the transition to sustainability and net zero through an inclusive approach. It employs co-design and co-produced methods and innovative uses of data and technology.
We seek to work with the most excluded and those who have the most to benefit from the research outcomes. To address issues of inclusion and socio-economic inequalities, we provide tangible approaches to how to address these complex challenges and involve those communities in the process. This requires that we test and demonstrate the solutions at a scale that enables scalable implementation and involves local stakeholders and communities in a participatory approach.
Social innovation is central to the success of the approach, and this requires a focus on issues of capacity building, tools and responsible use of technology. The Lab works with third sector and government partners to implement innovation where it is most needed and not just through the most accessible pathways, and demonstrates them in replicable ways that can have an impact.
The Lab takes an inclusive and place-based approach by working with stakeholders and building partnerships and co-creation in the research, ensuring potential beneficiaries are involved in designing the outcomes.
 

Explore our research projects

Emotional Data and Urban Planning

This research aims to reveal an emotional layer of the city that creates a relationship between people's everyday emotional responses and the physical features and characteristics of the city. The method works with a city setting and delivers an emotional data audit that combines emotional data in the form of biometric data gathered from people moving through the city, or in particular places with lightweight sensors that are linked to physical location. This data can be easily quantified, resulting in a more objective measure of emotions – rather than just qualitative feelings – that can give citizens agency in urban planning processes.
Emotional data audit

Green Minds – Living Lab
Digital park in the sea

Digital Seascapes

Digital Together – Community Digital Hubs

Digital Together

Senior couple looking at an iPad.

Intergenerational Codesign of Novel technologies In Coastal communities (ICONIC)

Health Technology Community Pop-up in Stonehouse

Health Technology Community Pop-up in Stonehouse

Participants in the BREATHE project led by Professor Katharine Willis.

BREATHE – Internet of Things (IoT) in the Wild

 

Our approach

Interdisciplinary research

We conduct world-leading, transdisciplinary research that integrates both quantitative and qualitative approaches to develop sustainable cities and communities. Through collaboration with diverse sectors, our research offers actionable insights to stakeholders, fostering innovation and impactful change.

Inclusive innovation and XAI

Our approach is innovation-led, emphasising responsible and participatory uses of technology and data. By addressing underrepresented groups and promoting gender and diversity inclusion, we aim to break societal barriers and ensure equitable outcomes.

Demonstrators and test cases

Through co-created test cases and demonstrators, we showcase the opportunities, benefits, and barriers of our approach, delivering actionable insights that create real-world impact in collaboration with stakeholders.

Partnerships and stakeholder collaboration

We work closely with stakeholders—government bodies, businesses, and individuals—to support the adoption of sustainable approaches. By driving coordinated transitions and removing barriers, our research supports evidence-based decision-making and future planning.
Sustainable cities and communities

Co-design and community engagement

We are committed to delivering a co-created research programme that directly contributes to Sustainable Development Goal 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities. Our co-design approach empowers communities, embedding researchers within them (similar to a KTP model), fostering genuine participation and building capacity for change.
 

Future Neighbourhoods

In partnership with Nudge Community Builders, Professor Katharine Willis explored why we need to develop future neighbourhoods from the ground up to create truly inclusive environments for all of our citizens. During this hands-on workshop, we worked with community members to highlight how we can build strong and sustainable communities using technology as a driver for change.
The workshop was part of FUTURES, a festival of discovery that explores the past, creates the present, and imagines the future.
 

Shaping smart cities and communities

Use of new technologies to develop inclusive urban spaces is today becoming more commonplace. Professor Katharine Willis is a leading voice in how people interact with technology and the communities in which they live. Her research explores the concept of smart cities and how a place-based approach may help to shape and define our cities in the future. Aligning the design and deployment of new city technologies to the needs of new communities should be a priority when setting local civic and infrastructural policies.
 

Impacting communities through research and knowledge exchange

The Green Minds – Living Lab project is included as a best practice example in the new Systemic Design Toolkit developed by the Design Council to address the Green Transition.
The Systemic Design Toolkit builds on the Design Council's Double Diamond framework for innovation. It includes 11 tools that guide users through the various stages of systemic design, enabling them to adopt a comprehensive and integrated approach to problem-solving.
 

Publications
The Lab is based on published work, including a number of books and book chapters:
  1. Willis, K., Aurigi, A (2020). The Routledge companion to smart Cities, Routledge.
  2. Willis, K (2019). Whose Right to the Smart City? In The Right to the Smart City. Editors: Kitchin R, Cardullo P, di Feliciantonio C. Emerald Publishing, Bingley 2019
  3. Willis, K., Aurigi, A (2018). Digital and Smart Cities, Routledge.
  4. Willis K (2016). Netspaces: Space and place in a networked world. Routledge
 

Research in the School of Art, Design and Architecture

Our researchers work across the arts and humanities fields, from fine arts to game design to architecture and environmental engineering. We have particular strengths in interdisciplinary collaboration from a local to global scale to advance knowledge and catalyse change. The focus of research in the School is on addressing global and societal challenges, and researchers are actively engaged with stakeholders outside the University context to contribute to meaningful and tangible impact for people, the environment, and communities.
Four Tet performs in the midst of a Squidsoup light installation in 2019 (courtesy: Rikard Osterlund/Squidsoup)

SHAPE disciplines address global challenges associated with marine, health and sustainability through the lens of place

Through five place-based research themes, we investigate the intricate relationships between communities, the natural world, and technology.
Locally, we co-create sustainable solutions to complex problems in order to build resilient and thriving neighbourhoods, cities, and regions. This work transcends geographical, social and political boundaries to become applicable on a global level.
Place-based research concept: crowd of people standing on a computer motherboard (full-bleed)
SHAPE – Social Sciences, Humanities, and the Arts for People and the Economy