Training and Capacity Building

The International Urban Resilience Academy (IURA) led by the UNESCO Chair on Urban Resilience (SDU.Resilience) working group at SDU delivers recurring summer trainings that build capacities for urban resilience, climate adaptation, and nature‑based solutions.

The week-long Urban Resilience Intensive Training (URIT) equips participants with core competencies in urban resilience, climate mitigation and adaptation, disaster risk reduction, and strategic and action planning. URIT emphasizes transdisciplinary perspectives and a problem‑based learning approach, integrating topics such as ecosystem services, nature‑based solutions, governance, participation, and future scenarios. Learning is highly interactive, combining expert input, peer‑to‑peer exchange, group work on real urban challenges, and field visits to best practices.

SDU also collaborates with Roskilde University to lead the 3-week DANIDA‑funded Sustainable Urban Development and Resilience programme, targeting mid‑ to senior‑level urban planning and sustainability professionals from municipalities in DANIDA partner countries. The programme addresses cities as complex systems facing multilayered social, environmental, and economic challenges. Participants develop practical competencies in urban systems thinking, wicked‑problem analysis, stakeholder and power mapping, participatory planning, and cross‑sectoral collaboration. Through lectures, group and individual work, peer learning, and field visits, the programme supports participants in translating learning into concrete strategies and action plans that can be implemented within their own institutions and local contexts.