On June 27^th, the events of the Shanghai Award and Shanghai Index co-organized by UN-Habitat and the Shanghai Coordination Center of the World Cities Day at the 11^th World Urban Forum was held in Katowice, Poland. With the theme of “Accelerating the research on the Shanghai Award and Shanghai Index and empowering the city’s sustainable development level”, the event promoted important research results such as Shanghai Award and Shanghai Index to the world through a combination of offline and online methods. The expert from Tongji University was invited to give a keynote speech on behalf of the “Shanghai Index” research team.

Dr. CHEN Haiiyun, the chief expert of the “Shanghai Index” research team and the researcher of the Institute of Sustainable Development and Management, School of Economics and Management, Tongji University, was invited to deliver a video keynote speech entitled “Shanghai Index’s Vision, Strategic Positioning, Indicator System and Global Application” , introduced the connotation of the three strategic orientations of Shanghai Index “People-oriented”, “Five-in-one” and “International Standards”, the “1+5+N” comprehensive framework of Shanghai Index, the design principles of the index system, core indicators agreed between UN-Habitat and the international expert group, as well as the selection criteria and data collection and application of global pilot cities. He said that Tongji University has made efforts to integrate relevant disciplines and platforms for the “Shanghai Index” Institute, which has gathered the strength of the whole university, and expressed his heartfelt gratitude to the strong support of UN-Habitat and other UN agencies and the active participation of international academic partners. At the end of the speech, he also concluded with the spirit of Tongji University (Serving the People and the World with One Heart, on the Same Boat), calling on more cities, scientific research institutions, social organizations, experts and scholars around the world to participate in the cooperative research, application and promotion of the Shanghai Index, and jointly promote the implementation of the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development contribute to the development agenda.

As Chinese members of the research team, ZHOU Yizhuo, a doctoral student jointly cultivated by Tongji University, Technical University of Munich, and Technical University of Berlin in Germany, YANG Fen, a MBA of Tongji M.Sc. TriContinent Global Supply Chain Management program, and GAO Yuan, a master student, were invited to Katowice from Berlin to participate in seminars, sharing the research results of the “Shanghai Index” with Dr. CHEN Haiyun and participating in the global promotion of the “Shanghai Index” of UN-Habitat.

With the joint support of the Shanghai Municipal Government, the Ministry of Housing and Construction of China and UN-Habitat,  the “Shanghai Index” is an international authoritative index for the global assessment of urban sustainable development, led by the Chinese research team and UN-Habitat, conducted by multinational experts and scholars around the world, and released by  relevant departments of the United Nations. The Chinese research team of  “Shanghai Index” is led by Professor ZHU Dajian and Dr. CHEN Haiyun from the School of Economics and Management, Tongji University.

On October 31^st, 2021, the framework of the comprehensive index system of the Shanghai Index was officially released to the world. It is reported that the Shanghai Index will be included in the UN-Habitat global urban flagship project, which is expected to cover the sustainability assessment of nearly 1000 major cities around the world by 2030. In addition, the Shanghai Index will become an important basis for the Shanghai Global Sustainable Development City Award jointly established by UN-Habitat, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development of China and the Shanghai Municipal People’s Government.