Our Principles
With more than half of the world’s population living in urban areas, healthy cities are a priority now more than ever before.
Our mission is to leverage the knowledge and skills of our School, and the broader Columbia University community, to help protect and improve health for people living in cities throughout the world.
Based on key principles, our teams unite scientists around urban health for actionable knowledge and transformative solutions:
-
Principle 1: "Health In All and For All” - A focus on the intersection of cities and health, as well as equity for urban residents with and without a political voice, across the lifecourse.
-
Principle 2: "Scientific Federation” - A global alliance of scientific partners led in each city by local universities and their government, community, and industry partners
-
Principle 3: "Win-Win Science” - Innovative health interventions that bring resources to urban communities in need while also building scientific evidence and generalizable knowledge.
-
Principle 4: "Structural, Scalable, and Sustainable Solutions” - Proven actions that change the basic underpinnings of poor health and can be widely distributed within and across cities.
Our scientists work in four major areas: