The Cities of Tomorrow Applied Research Centre “Tomorrow’s Cities – Urban Risk in Transition” is promoted by the Government of the United Kingdom in four cities around the world: Istanbul (Turkey), Kathmandu (Nepal), Nairobi (Kenya) and Quito (Ecuador) (see https://tomorrowscities.org/ ). In the case of Quito, this project is executed by three universities: Universidad San Francisco de Quito, the National Polytechnic School and the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences, Flacso.

The Tomorrow’s Cities Center aims to provide scientific support to reduce the risk of disasters caused by natural threats to communities with economic and social vulnerabilities. It aims to strengthen capacities through science, history and art, seeking to promote participatory action by the different actors involved in territorial management, and thus contribute to adequate sustainable development. Within the work we do, we have an “Urban Laboratory for Disaster Risk Reduction.” The objective of this space is to generate multi-actor dialogue processes as a tool to promote a supportive environment for decision-making.

Within the framework of the laboratory, prior individual and group meetings have been held with different territorial actors that make up the laboratory as core members. The purpose of these meetings was to co-produce the laboratory space in its contents, activities and participants. Therefore, the implementation of a series of workshops has been proposed until March 2022, with the following themes: 1) Risk management in the context of the new PUGS; 2) Citizen science; 3) Education to reduce the risk of disasters; and 4) Citizen participation as a key element in the mitigation and reduction of disaster risk. The first workshop took place on November 25 in person at the facilities of Flacso, Ecuador, and was developed as follows.