Yvonne Franz is a Postdoc Researcher & Lecturer at the Department of Geography and Regional Research & at the Department of Sociology (both University of Vienna). She is the Scientific Director of the Postgraduate Programme “Cooperative Urban and Regional Development” at the Postgraduate Center at University of Vienna, local coordinator of the „Erasmus Mundus Joint Master in Urban Studies (4CITIES)  and Core Member of the Research Platform “Urban Futures”. Yvonne investigates multi-scalar and multi-actor constellations of urban transformation, with particular emphasis on the influence of urban neighbourhoods. As an urban geographer, she provides theoretical and empirical expertise on urban revitalisation, gentrification, super-diversity and social innovation by using a comparative approach. Currently, she is working on participation and enhancing governance from a comparative perspective in Vienna, Berlin, Bologna and Ljubljana in the INTERREG Central Europe project “GEtCoheSive”. In the Urban Studies working group, she contributes her extensive experience in conceptualizing and implementing urban living labs, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research perspectives.