Connecting ideas, policies, people and actions as a gateway to sustainable

We are a community of scholars from across the university, committed to delivering world-leading research on global sustainable development

Our Vision: IGSD as a gateway to sustainable (GTS)

The IGSD was launched in 2019 to be at the forefront of knowledge creation that enables transformation towards a more sustainable, prosperous, healthier and just world for all. In 2022, under the new Director, Professor Elena Korosteleva, the IGSD set to become the gateway to research on global sustainable development at Warwick, working with all faculties and cognisant centres and institutes. To support this, IGSD will grow its own cutting-edge and impactful research, and also contribute to shaping the research pillar of the University’s new Sustainability Strategy, along with its other components - Education, Operations, and Engagement.

Our Mission

To enhance Warwick’s leadership in transdisciplinary research on global sustainable development.

Our Strategy

To implement its vision, IGSD will pursue a three-pronged approach:

It will grow and consolidate its thematic portfolios of cutting-edge research on:

- environmental policy and governance in the Anthropocene;
- resilience as a multi-species community facing planetary challenges, and
- complex eco-systems and climate change, with water security being a central focus.

It will become the gateway to sustainable by contributing to the Warwick's Way to Sustainable through research and practice.
It will champion, and be recognised for its leadership in global sustainable development, nationally and globally, working with our strategic partner-HEIs towards developing a Sustainability Excellence Framework, with a transparent and accessible accreditation scheme in the future.

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
Visualise and develop research networks on sustainable development across and beyond Warwick
Launch and grow an ECR 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 policy impact on sustainable development, locally and internationally.

Our Activity

We will develop and leverage interdisciplinary expertise on global sustainable development by working in partnership with transdisciplinary and non-academic stakeholders across the globe.
We will connect with researchers across and beyond Warwick to explore together new funding opportunities and to think about the connections between disciplines.
We will launch an ECR Sustainability Training School (ECR STS) to offer training in transdisciplinary sustainability research skills, community, and policy impact.

Working alongside Warwick's Global Research Priorities programme, our activity will include a rolling schedule of events in support of network building.
We will work with research centres, programmes, and institutes to highlight and visualise the breadth of the contribution Warwick makes to GSD research.
We will seek to cultivate a supportive GSD awareness culture that shares best practice to enhance research, for example by delivering transdisciplinary methods labs.

We will set up an IGSD Thematic Fellows network to develop transdisciplinary linkages and research agenda on global sustainable development.
We will set an IGSD Honorary Fellows Board consisting of policymakers, practitioners and other non-academic stakeholders to advise and support us in our mission.
We aim to launch a flagship Annual Sustainability Conference and contribute advice and strategic policy recommendations for UNFCCC COP and other decision-making bodies, such as the UN High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development.

For more information about Warwick's Global Sustainable Development degree programmes, see the School of Cross-Faculty Studies