Dr. Ulrich Graute FAcSS
Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences (UK)
Policy analyst, governance expert, advisor, team leader and mentor
61st ISOCARP WORLD PLANNING CONGRESS, 2025, General Rapporteur, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
ISOCARP SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE, 2020 - 2025, Chair 2023 - 2025
UN-HABITAT, Senior Advisor, Nairobi, Kenya 2017 - 2019; Riyadh 2015 - 16, 2022, 2023 - 2024
REGIONAL STUDIES ASSOCIATION, RSA Board Member 2010 - 2015
UNITED NATIONS Secretariat, Senior Advisor, New York, USA 2008 - 2013
EUROPEAN UNION, INTERREG II and III, Program Manager 1996 - 2008
LEIBNIZ INSTITUTE OF ECOLOGICAL AND REGIONAL DEVELPMENT, IÖR, Researcher, Dresden, Germany, 1993 - 2002
SAXON STATE CENTER, Dresden and STATE CENTER OF BADEN-WÜRTTEMBERG, Stuttgart, Germany 1989 - 1992
ALTERNATIVE FOR INDIA DEVELOPMENT, ASA PROGRAM, Chennai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Kolkata India 1987
KOINONIA PARTNERS and HABITAT FOR HUMANITY, Americus, Georgia, USA 1984, 1985 - 1986, 1988
In December 2025, Ulrich concluded his work as General Rapporteur at ISOCARP’s 61st World Congress of City and Regional Planners, as well as his term of office for 2022–2025 as Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of ISOCARP – International Society for City and Regional Planners. Previously, Ulrich was member of the Expert Evaluation Committee for the Smart City Expo World Congress in November 2025 Barcelona, Spain.
In 2026, he will begin a new chapter with new responsibilities, including work at the intersection of AI, urban development, and human development.
Ulrich is a seasoned policy analyst, program manager, team leader, and mentor with 35 years of experience driving success for public and private institutions at local, national, and international levels. Based on his international experience he supports with professionalism, integrity and empathy Cities, Governments, and Non-governmental Organisations around the world in their cooperation, policy analysis, strategy and transition management in times of multiple challenges and opportunities. He is lecturer and mentor. In view of the change increasingly perceived as the age of artificial intelligence, he is especially interested in challenges at the interface between AI, cities and humans.
News
22/12/2025: Ulrich received an invitation and will attend IASEAI'26. The International Association for Safe & Ethical AI (IASEAI) will host its second annual conference (IASEAIʼ26) on 24-26 February 2026 at UNESCO House in Paris, France.Participation is on invitation only. Participants will include Nobel Laureates like Geoffrey Hinton and Joseph Stiglitz and AI developers including Stuart Russel, Yoshua Bengio and Alondra Nelson. This conference will bring together an interdisciplinary community of researchers, policymakers, industry leaders, and practitioners committed to ensuring that AI technologies are safe, ethical, and beneficial. We anticipate 1,000–1,500 attendees. Submitted papers will be reviewed by the scientific program committee for selection as oral presentations and posters. Government officials and journalists will also be invited.
22/12/2025: Ulrich's new AI-related paper will be published as a chapter in the book City Economies in the Global South: Growth, Inclusion, and Sustainability (edited by Tathagata Chatterji and Marco Kamiya). It is being published by Routledge and already it has been allotted ISBN. Please find here the details: Hardback ISBN: 978-1-041-04072-9, E-book ISBN: 978-1-003-63033-3.
Red circles indicate the high diversity
of locations and environments
where Ulrich has worked and
gained experience until now.