Designing Sustainable Futures: Connecting Ideas, Policies, and People
"Sustainability is about sustaining life, and sustained life is a property of an ecosystem rather than a single organism or species. Nature sustains life by creating and nurturing communities, and as no individual organism can exist in isolation, sustainability is a property of an entire interconnected web of relations" (Evitts, Seale & Skybrook 2010)
We are a community of researchers, across and beyond the University, aiming to pro-actively pioneer, through research, education, practice, and engagement, sustainable futures for planetary well-being.
Our Vision: IGSD as a gateway to sustainable
The Institute for Global Sustainable Development (IGSD) was established in 2016 with the aim 'to become a leader in interdisciplinary research' and 'a catalyst and partner for regional, national and international development and sustainability'. In 2022, under the guidance of the new Director, Professor Elena Korosteleva, the IGSD is poised to serve as a primary hub for, and a gateway to research on global sustainable development at Warwick. It will collaborate with all faculties, relevant research networks and centres, thereby actively contributing to the University’s Research and Sustainability Strategy.
Our Mission
To enhance Warwick’s leadership in interdisciplinary research on global sustainable development.
Our Strategy
To actualise its vision, IGSD will pursue a three-fold strategy:
- Advancing IGSD research specialisms to grow its own cutting-edge world-leading research in:
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- resilience as a way of living, and thriving in the Anthropocene, including human-environment interactions and designerly governance
- complex eco-systems and climate change, with water security being a central focus
- environmental governance, including the focus on commons, and well-being
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Becoming a focal point and a gateway to research on sustainability at Warwick by actively contributing to Warwick's Way to Sustainable and its cross-disciplinary flagship Sustainability Spotlight Initiative, through research and practice.
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Being recognised, regionally, nationally and internationally, for actively championing our research and communicating our positive impact, on policies, people and the well-being of our planet.
Through our research we tackle the following SDGs
Our Goals
- Launch and contribute to the implementation of Warwick's Sustainability Strategy, and its research pillar
- Map, visualise and develop research networks on sustainable development across and beyond Warwick
- Launch and grow a platform for supporting ECR research, including via an Sustainability Training School (ECR STS) at Warwick and its strategic partners
- Launch and grow an Annual Sustainability Conference (ASC) for scholarly exchange on global sustainable development
- Develop large-scale funding bids, leveraging Warwick’s diverse range of sustainable development scholars
- Grow and communicate our research impact on sustainable development, locally and internationally.