Cooperation of the University of Pécs with the UN Human Settlements Programme

2020

Mar

12

The University of Pécs signed a memorandum of understanding with the United Nations agency for human settlements, the UN Habitat. The UoP was the first among Hungarian higher education institutions to do so. The partnership agreement, which was recently signed at the 10^th World Urban Forum in Abu Dhabi, includes sections about international sustainable settlement development, research in connection with this topic, as well as the organization of joint seminars, workshops, conferences. Furthermore, the UN Habitat offers educational courses for the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology. The contract was signed by Prof. Gabriella Medvegy, dean of the Faculty, Dr. István Tarrósy, Director of the Centre for Internationalization and Connections and Dr. János Gyergyák, the coordinator of the UN Habitat programme at the Faculty.

The University of Pécs is a dedicated supporter of establishing an innovative and creative scientific environment, thereby promoting the development of basic and applied research and science in general. For the first University in Hungary, university-centered innovation and research are of crucial importance in order to boost the standard of living. To achieve this goal, educating well-trained professionals is necessary, as well as the support of local knowledge-base and the combination of traditional and innovative scientific research.

The UN Habitat is United Nations Human Settlements Programme, established by the UN General Assembly in 1997 with headquarters in Kenya. Through its widespread organization UN Habitat maintains a close cooperation with national governments, which are responsible for the support of local partner organizations, authorities, private- and civil organizations in order to enable the realization of the UN Sustainability Goals. Within its programmes, the inclusiveness, safety, resilience and sustainability are prioritized.

János Gyergyák, assistant professor of the Department of Architecture and Urban Planning at the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology, contact person for the UN Habitat at the university emphasized: “Through this cooperation

the University of Pécs might become the East- Central European knowledge centre of the UN programme responsible for the coordination of human settlements.

The UN Habitat deals with the operation of settlements and improving the living conditions globally. It is capable of transmitting tremendous amounts of data and knowledge, which the university is able to transfer to the settlements.” János Gyergyák highlighted, that in order to prevent the effects of climate change settlement planning is useful and indispensable.

“The UN collects and shares good practices, which might be quite useful for education and research. Furthermore, the 2022 world expo will be of historical importance, since Central Europe, and within that Poland will host a world expo on settlement development (WUF11) for the first time, where the results on European sustainable settlement development might be in focus. This way, the results of the cooperation and joint research of the UN and the University of Pécs might be introduced at the 2022 world expo, maybe in the form of a detailed set of proposals.”

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