City+2026@Mytilene Successfully Concludes in Greece
The 9th International Conference on Interdisciplinary Urban Studies (City+2026@Mytilene) was successfully held in Mytilene, Greece, from 1–5 July 2026. Hosted by the University of the Aegean and City+, the conference was jointly organised with Zhejiang University, University College London, Elsevier, and other international collaborators. Since 2017, City+ conferences have been successfully held in Cambridge, London, Delft, Milan, Canberra, Perth, Kitakyushu, and Oxford, attracting more than one thousand participants from universities and research institutions worldwide over the past nine years. Besides, City+2026@Mytilene expanded its focus beyond cities alone by addressing the interconnected challenges and opportunities of both urban and rural communities.
Under the theme of “Improving Liveability for Urban and Rural Settings,” City+2026@Mytilene featured five general thematic sessions and fifteen special sessions, including four keynote speeches, 140 oral presentations, and 36 poster presentations. The conference attracted approximately 280 participants, including 72 members from the jointly organised European Union’s Erasmus Mundus Summer School programme. Participants represented 36 countries and regions across Europe, Asia, the Americas, Oceania, and Africa, demonstrating the broad international reach and interdisciplinary character of the City+ network. The conference brought together researchers from more than one hundred universities, research institutions, and professional organisations worldwide. Participants included scholars from leading universities such as Tsinghua University, Peking University, The University of Hong Kong, Zhejiang University, University of Oxford, University College London, Delft University of Technology, National University of Singapore, Technical University of Munich, and many other internationally recognised institutions. Experts from academic publishing, government-related organisations, and professional institutions, including Elsevier, also actively participated in the conference discussions.
A notable highlight of City+2026@Mytilene was its close connection with the Erasmus Mundus ISLANDS Summer School, jointly organised by the University of the Aegean, the University of Groningen, City+ and other partners from 4–12 July 2026. The summer school brought together 72 participants from 26 countries to explore marine and terrestrial spatial planning in island regions. The programme combined lectures, spatial data analysis, and case-based learning to examine socio-economic adaptation, environmental sustainability, and cultural resilience in island communities.
During the closing session, Professor Pengyu Zhu officially announced that the 10th International Conference on Interdisciplinary Urban Studies (City+2027@HongKong) will be hosted by The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in 2027.
