This policy brief displays a successful compact and connected city solution – the consolidation of Staffordshire University into a distinct University Quarter – that has been implemented in Stoke-on-Trent – a medium-size polycentric industrial city in central England, coping with population loss. Building on local knowledge and stakeholders’ experiences, it shows how better integration of local knowledge infrastructure can improve the compactness and connectivity of the city. It reveals a number of conditions to make it happen. The key lesson is that achieving compactness and connectivity depends on building unique university expertise, meeting the current and future requirements, and aspirations of the academic staff, students, and visitors, and on providing good learning, teaching, and everyday life experience.

3S RECIPE is part of the Joint Programming Initiative (JPI) Urban Europe's ERA-NET Cofund Smart Urban Futures Call (ENSUF). This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 857160.