Dr Ralf Brand from The University of Manchester will look at a range of issues affecting Belfast, Beirut, Berlin and Amsterdam, including how they can improve their potential for "friendly environments".

The work will help policy makers, planners, architects, urban designers and citizens to create a built environment which will tackle radicalisation within communities.

One project under the microscope will be the Stewartstown Road Regeneration Project in Belfast  - a small retail and office complex where Protestant Suffolk and Catholic Lenadoon housing estates meet in outer West Belfast.

Members of both communities shop in a specially designed building which has measures including anti graffiti paint, dual access and exit points for Protestants and Catholics and clear passage to entrances.

The investigation is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.