The Australian Institute of Urban Studies is an independent non-profit organisation established through the initiatives of the Australian Planning Institute and the Social Science Research Council. The Institute is supported by membership subscription and by the proceeds of its activities such as public seminars, the sale of research publications and by occasional grants from industry and government. Although there are other, mostly professional, organisations with an interest in urban affairs, AIUS is Australia's only widely representative, non partisan, multi-disciplinary body concerned with all aspects of urban affairs.