The Marron Institute conducts innovative applied research, working with cities to take on critical challenges of urban living. Started with a generous gift from Donald B. Marron, the Institute operates on a model of academic venture capital in which the faculty who run research programs receive seed funding. Faculty members use seed funds to develop their programs, hire research staff and build portfolios of externally-funded projects that have the potential to improve outcomes in cities. Currently, the Marron Institute has four major research programs focused on urban planning, environmental health, civic analytics, and public sector performance and innovation.

Globally, cities are home to more than half of the world’s population—4 billion people and growing. Though the researchers and faculty members at the Marron Institute do publish and teach on occasion, their chief focus is the pursuit of sponsored research that will extend the impact of the Institute’s founding gift and have a positive and measurable impact on life in cities the world over.

1. The planning and hosting of executive courses with the Marron Institute Scholars and guest experts from NYU and other organizations.
2. The development of research that benefits UN-Habitat mission and goals. This collaboration can be done as a partnership between UN-Habitat and NYU, between NYU and other academic or non-academic entities or solely as NYU.
3. To share the latest insights and results from the Institutes research and projects.
4. To extend the invitation to our event agenda with the possibility to reserve sitting for UN-Habitat members or other partner universities of the network.
5. To extend our staff of scholars and researches for any collaboration, project or event that UN-Habitat would like to develop.

• Social Inclusion
• Slum Upgrading
• Safety
• Resilience
• Reconstruction
• Planning and Design
• Mobility
• Legislation
• Land
• Information and Monitoring
• Housing
• Governance
• Gender
• Evaluation
• Environment
• Energy
• Economy
• Climate Change
• Capacity Development

• Informal Urbanism
• Climate Change
• Urban Regeneration
• Safer Cities
• Urban Accessibility
• Urban Governance
• Urban Form