The Global Center of Spatial Methods for Urban Sustainability (SMUS) is one of seven Excellence Centers for Exchange and Development (exceed), funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) via the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). It started its operation in 2020 and the coordination unit is based at the Institut für Stadt- und Regionalplanung (ISR) at Technische Universität Berlin.
The SMUS and the SMUS network partners work together via 5 Actions to develop tactics and strategies on how to best tackle urban sustainability challenges through transdisciplinary, spatial, and practice-led research. These are expressed by integrating knowledge networks, training and research content, and publication of the research results.
Following Phase I (2020-2024), which focused on advancing the academic discourse on spatial methods for urban sustainability and bridging disciplinary and implementation gaps; Phase II (2025-2029) addresses intertwined wicked urban problems.
SMUS continues to work on expanding and consolidating its international network of scholars and practitioners with South-South cooperation and co-production processes. Our long-term goal is to have the network become autonomous, with collaborations between global network partners continuing beyond the life of this project.