The Shrinking Cities International Research Network (SCiRN^TM) is a research consortium of 30 scholars and experts from 14 different countries pursuing research on shrinking cities in a global context. It was founded 2004 under the aegis of the Institute of Urban and Regional Development at the University of California, Berkely because although the decline of cities was a common issue for urban planners worldwide, there was only little comparative research on this topic at that time.

The consortium's aim is to advance international understanding and promote scholarship about population decrease, its causes, manifestations, spatial variations, and effectiveness of policies and planning interventinos to stave off decline.

Through case studies theoretical and methodological tools for analysing shrinking cities in different national contexts are produced. Findings of this work will be gathered in the long rund through the development of an observatory of shrinking cities. First research results have been published.