The Pan-African Research College on sustainable Cities is a collaborative development with five African Universities. Thirteen excellent junior researchers will be further qualified at the doctoral and post-doctoral level at five African universities in three countries. They will be offered a variety of networking opportunities to build a new generation of African decision-makers. The thematic focus on urbanization and sustainable urban planning links scientists from different disciplines and strengthens Pan-African research collaborations. The College focusses on finding solutions to the challenges that African cities are currently facing and will be facing on an increasing basis in the future. The aim of the college is to mobilise researchers from different disciplines related to sustainable cities. These include experts from fields like town and city planning, environmental sciences, social sciences and architecture. Fellows and university staff will meet regularly for three annual fellow workshops around the Pan-African continent. The first Fellow Workshop of the Pan-African College On Sustainable Cities was hosted by the Global Change Institute (University of the Witwatersrand) and the African Centre for Cities (University of Cape Town) from the 9th to the 15th of June 2019. This workshop laid the foundation towards building a more defined vision for the college and brought together the entire network, with College fellows, for the first time. Participating institutions include the United Nations University-Institute for Natural resources in Africa (UNU-INRA) and the Universities of Cape Town, Ghana, Nairobi and the Witwatersrand.