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SSRP-BOND report for the All-Party Parliamentary Group on the UN Global Goals for Sustainable Development

Staff and students at a project workshop in Peru, held in collaboration with the Intercultural Amazon University Peru.

For the sixth year running, the University of Sussex has been ranked number one for Development Studies in the world. The 2022 QS World University Rankings by Subject announced at the beginning of April focus on the quality, impact and range of international development research and courses offered across higher education institutions. Sussex is home to world-class international research and teaching experts for development studies, including from the Sussex Sustainability Research Programme (SSRP), Institute of Development Studies (IDS), School of Global Studies, Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU), Centre for International Education (CIE).

This week, on 27 April 2022, the results of a further international ranking which measures universities’ performance on working towards novel, transformative solutions and a better future were released. The University of Sussex was announced as joint 37^th in the Times Higher Education (THE) Impact Rankings 2022, up from 41^st last year. 

The annual THE Impact Rankings were first published in 2019 and assess higher education institutions on their work towards the United Nation’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), or global goals. Each goal focuses on tackling a different global issue, including access to education and services, inequality, climate change, conflict, and injustice. Sussex participated in the THE Impact Rankings for the second time and submitted data for 8 out of the 17 SDGs, including SDG 13 Climate Action, SDG 10 Reduced Inequalities and SDG 7 Affordable and Clean Energy. Like last year, Sussex scored highly in SDG 1 No Poverty and SDG 11 Sustainable Cities and Communities. Particularly SDG 17 has been a core strength of the university in both years. This year, Sussex achieved a 99.8 out of 100 rating and has therefore been named third in the world in working towards SDG 17 which is about fostering partnerships to achieve multiple SDGs. 

Professor Joseph Alcamo (School of Global Studies), Director of the SSRP, said: “The SSRP was happy to make a major contribution to SDG 17 with its numerous equitable partnerships abroad, its interdisciplinary research collaborations and its focus on an integrative approach to the SDGs. The high impact ranking is really a tribute to so many Sussex sustainability researchers who carry out research that is not only high quality, but also has a positive impact in numerous countries around the world”. The excellent result in SDG 17 reflects the achievements of the SSRP sustainability research community, the Sussex Energy Group, the STEPS Centre and others, as well as the university’s and SSRP’s overall commitment to global partnerships for delivering on the SDGs.

Examples of SSRP’s research, policy influence, impact and outreach activities highlighted in the university’s THE Impact Ranking submission included:

• SSRP-BOND report for the All-Party Parliamentary Group on the UN Global Goals for Sustainable Development
• South Coast Sustainability Forum, held by SSRP, bringing together local and national stakeholders, on key sustainability issues, including building local partnerships for net zero
• ‘Evidence for Action Symposium’, an online international conference on aligning the Climate and SDG Agendas, organised by SSRP and co-hosted by 12 organisations from 10 countries, including 7 Global South organisations. 
• SSRP workshops on ‘Research Methods for Sustainability’ and ‘Working with Nature in Farming and Conversation’ to debate the future of agri-environment policy
• SSRP-funded project ‘Agricultural Voices Syria’ which helps to promote sustainable agricultural best practice through podcasting
• Peru-Brazil-UK network of indigenous students and researchers focused on mapping indigenous rights violations and violence that arise from current development paradigms as well as the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Collaboration with small scale fishers to co-produce knowledge for early warning of extreme weather events in India through the SSRP-funded ‘Forecasting with Fishers’ project

Further information about SSRP research projects and outputs, reports, events and conferences can be found on the Sussex Sustainability Research Programme (SSRP) website. For more details on the university’s THE Impact Ranking performance, read through the Sussex news item.

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