Officially established in December 2012 at Hangzhou Normal University (HNU), the Institute for Urban Studies is a specialty research institution that combines the disciplines of geography, ecology, city planning, architecture, etc. based on the development of the field of social sciences at HNU to form an interdisciplinary and special study of urbanology. It maintains active relationships with the Hangzhou International Urbanology Center and other relevant research centers and institutions across the globe, and has a staff of five professional researchers, two invited researchers, and twenty part-time researchers including one foreign researcher now.