Deutsches Institut für Urbanistik (Difu)
The German Institute of Urban Affairs (Difu) is the biggest urban research centre in the German-speaking world (approx. 100 employees) and is supported by well over 100 German cities, the federal government and the state of Berlin. The legal body responsible for the Difu is the Verein für Kommunalwissenschaften e.V. It provides policymakers and civil servants with an up-to-date and reliable basis for decision-making and action. The institute has extensive knowledge and experience in implementing academic projects, in evaluating and supporting policies, in running competitions and project simulations and in organizing comprehensive knowledge transfer via workshops and conferences, databases and publications. Interdisciplinarity is an important feature of the Difu. Its researchers have backgrounds in law, economics, social sciences, urban planning, geography, architecture, information sciences and engineering.
The thematic areas of Difu's activities comprise urban development; infrastructure and public finance; social policy and culture; environment and transportation policy. Special emphasis is placed on questions of economic development and technology policy in an urban and regional context. Difu takes an active part in European research (Framework Programme, Community Initiatives like INTERREG, URBACT) and is a member of relevant networks like the European Urban Research Association (EURA), Eurocities' Working Group on Urban Policy or the current COST Action “Urban Knowledge Arena”.