Abstract

Our expert panel on urban science has now delivered its much-awaited report, following more than a year of lively and intensive debate. Nature Sustainability launched in January this year with the remit of providing insights into the interaction between people and the natural world and an explicit proposition to the broad community of sustainability scholars and practitioners — one fitting for an outlet that proactively stimulates pioneering research on the most pressing sustainability challenges of our time, while encouraging lively, relevant debates within and beyond academia. Finding innovative ways to engage the community and respond to its evolving needs has been at the core of our editorial strategy. We started our engagement journey before the journal’s launch. In April 2017, we convened the first Nature Sustainability expert panel on urban science. It was set up as collaboration with University College London (www.cityleadership.net/naturesustainability-panel). Focussed on urban science–policy interactions in the context of global sustainability, the panel contributes to the ongoing discussion on the role of cities in shaping our future.