Associated research Centers for Urban Underground Space (ACUUS) is an international, non-governmental organization dedicated to partnerships amongst experts who design, analyse and decide upon the use of our cities` underground spaces. The idea to create the ACUUS was first suggested in 1992 at the 5th International Conference of Underground Space and Urban Planning in Delft and took shape at its 6th International Conference in Paris. ACUUS was formally established in the fall of 1996 in Sendai, Japan. The ACUUS secretariat was inaugurated in October 1997 in Montreal at the end of the 7th International Conference: Underground Space: Indoor Cities of Tomorrow and is now kindly hosted by the Institut d`urbanisme of the University of Montreal. In 2008, ACUUS decided at the time of its Athens` General Assembly of members to move the Secretariat to Beijing. The new Secretariat would then be supported jointly by the China Civil Engineering Society (CCES), the Chinese Society for Rock Mechanics and Engineering (CSRME), and the Urban Planning Society of China (UPSC). Currently the Secretariat transfer process is making steady and positive progress. Focused on critical parameters of underground development, ACUUS has organized several international events in Sydney (Australia, 1983), Minneapolis (USA, 1986), Shanghai (China, 1988), Tokyo (Japan, 1991), Delft (The Netherlands, 1992), Paris (France, 1995), Montreal (Canada, 1997), Xi’an (China, 1999), Turin (Italy, 2002), Moscow (Russia, 2005), and Athens (Greece, 2007).