University of Amsterdam

Research partnership with University of Amsterdam

June 2021 - Klimaatkantoor has initiated and launched a research collaboration with the University of Amsterdam Business School and the Municipality of Amsterdam studying partnerships in the sustainability transition.

Amsterdam is a healthy, prosperous, green and sustainable city; a city that is for everyone. To ensure it stays that way, Amsterdam will become a climate-neutral city, functioning according to the principles of the circular economy. The City of Amsterdam aims to have decreased the city’s CO2 emissions by 55% in 2030 and by 95% in 2050 (compared to 1990). Amsterdam aims for the energy transition to happen justly, in a way that lets all ‘Amsterdammers’ participate. The city is growing at a rapid pace, with around 11,000 additional inhabitants and 5,000 homes each year. Over the past years (pre-COVID-19), the number of visitors to Amsterdam has grown rapidly. This success brings a number of drawbacks, especially to the historic inner city of Amsterdam. 

The corona pandemic has been embraced as a “catalyst” for change and an opportunity for the city to redefine itself. The aim is to create a visitor economy that does not harm the livability of the city, taking the needs of residents and locals into account. In a letter to the city council at the end of May 2020, Mayor Femke Halsema wrote that the lockdown had underscored “the urgency to think about the city center of the future.” The letter was followed by an extensive Inner City Transformation plan published December 2020, aiming for a more sustainable tourism flow and a higher quality of life for residents. 

Partnerships form an important strategic goal of the intended transformation, at the same time the Municipality is still looking for the most effective cross-sector collaboration strategy. The goals of the research partnership project is to further generate knowledge about the process and outcomes of cross-sector collaboration in the urban sustainability transition of Amsterdam. The research partnership collaboration aims at a better understanding of the collaborative process between the municipality, companies and civil society in local urban ecosystems, by bringing together academics and practitioners.