IGSD News

In its second iteration, the Warwick Sustainability Forum (WSF) brought together a passionate community of researchers with a focus on sustainability across and beyond Warwick, to collectively plan our actions towards addressing global planetary challenges in 2025/26, and to discuss the next BIG ISSUES for the sustainability agenda, regionally, nationally and internationally. The WSF was attended by nearly 60 researchers from across all Faculties representing many disciplines, to:

• To report on the Sustainability Spotlight KPIs for 2024/25 premised on Sustainability Spotlight Report 2024: Time to Talk.
• To take stock of new ideas and priorities for the Sustainability Spotlight 2025/26, and identify champions to lead them
• To collectively discuss the NEXT BIG ISSUES for sustainability for the UK and globally, in conversation with a higher-level roundtable.
• To develop an Action Plan for 2025/26 – for finalisation in September 2025

The Sustainability Spotlights leads reported about the year's activities, challenges and achievements. Their presentations were continued with reflection and action sessions, planning 2025/26. The WSF also involved external stakeholders, including from partner universities in Uzbekistan (Akram Umarov UWED), Azerbaijan (Nargiz Ismayilova, ADA University) and India (Seema Mundoli, Azim Premji University), to shape the next year's agenda together. It concluded with a high-level roundtable, masterfully chaired by Stuart Coles (WMG), to discuss the next BIG Issues of the sustainability agenda, locally and globally. The speakers included Lord Teverson, Dr Kathryn Magnay (EPSRC), Fajli BIB (GSI), Julie Walden (E.ON), Margot James (Coventry Climate Change Board), and Muneeba Amjad (Warwick SU). Thereafter people continued their conversations and networking on a FAB terrace, enjoying beautiful weather and wine reception!

The WSF will produce a ‘From reflection to action’ report 2024/25, outline ideas for the 2025/26 Action Plan and identify champions for 2025/26 (to become new members of the Steering Group). We conclude this year's forum on a positive note, with a high appraisal from the University Review Board, and a lot of achievements to celebrate. We look forward to the next year, and thank all those who got involved with us this year - especially Sustainability Steering Group members! - Sustainability Professional Support Team - Cher Zou and Tanya Liguori - and our Facilitation team - Christine Bell and Amelia Wakeford.

For more information please visit the WSF page here.

IGSD and the Sustainability Spotlight Steering Group hosted meetings of international partners from Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and India. Ms Nargiz Ismayilova from, Head of Partnerships from Ada University, Dr Akram Umarov, Vice-Rector of UWED and Director of the Institute of Advanced International Studies, and Dr Seema Mundoli from the Climate Change Centre and Sustainability at Azim Premji University, presented their research to the Steering Group, and discussed research projects and suitable funding opportunities with IGSD. In the afternoon they also interacted with EUTOPIA partners at lunch, and met to discuss MOUs with Prof. Michael Scott, PVC International.

Dr. Vangelis Pitidis attended the European Urban Resilience Forum (EURESFO) 2025, in Rotterdam from 25–27 June. As a leading expert in urban resilience and territorial governance, with experience in leading project in Latin America, Africa and particularly Europe, Dr Pitidis had a chance to meet city representatives, academics and other urban practitioners and discuss teh progress of urban resilience as well as the that need to be addressed in order to consolidate and promote it aross Europe. Hi attendance provided a strategic opportunity to strengthen IGSD’s presence within key European policy networks, such as the ones represented in EURESFO 2025, jointly organised by ICLEI Europe and the European Environment Agency. The event has been truly informative, including keynote speeches, mobile workshops and knowledge exchange events and has been a a great success!

The WUB-hub conference at RUSI took place on 26/6/2025 and judging by the participants' feedback, was an absolute success. It gathered politicians, civil servants, diplomatic staff, academics, and practitioners from Europe and UK, generating a vibrant and polemic discussion about the future of security and peace in Ukraine and Belarus, with profound implications for the wider Europe and the world. We were immensely happy to host a special panel of our WUB-hub seed-corn finalists with an opportunity for them to present their research projects’ results. Massive thanks to Paul Hansbury for driving this seed-corn project to fruition! The projects’ findings are available on our website for further information.

Our special thanks are also to the participants of the two panels – on Ukraine and Belarus – and their chairs, Andy and Tatsiana, and to our keynote speakers, and to our high-level panellists. We raised many critical issues, and sought ideas on how nurture security and peace in wider Europe. The conference's photos and a video clip, as well as a report with policy recommendations will be available soon on the WUB-hub website.

We are also indebted to the RUSI staff – Emily and Callum, and Zivile and Sabrina, for their intellectual and highly professional support in hosting our event.

Warwick hosted the Sustainability Network Studio on 3-5 June, an international event to facilitate the formation of interdisciplinary research collaborations in and around the area of Sustainability between researchers at three universities: Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) from Belgium; Technische Universitat Dresden (TUD) from Germany and the University of Warwick.

The event was organised as part of the EUTOPIA activities and under the aegis of the Sustainability Spotlight. It was led Prof. Elena Korosteleva in her capacity as Chair of the Sustainability Spotlight, and in partnership with the Sustainability Spotlight leadership team. The event was held over the three days, involving members of the Sustainability Spotlight networks. It was based around pitch presentations from each of the 23 researchers attending and consortium-building for European research funding. The event was facilitated by research support staff from each of the three institutions and is expected to lead to new research collaborations in and around the sustainability area in disciplines ranging from chemistry and engineering to political science, business and economics. From the Warwick team, it included Prof. Stuart Coles (WMG), Prof. Stefan Bon (Chemistry), Dr Fred Dahlmann (WBS), Dr Soroush Abolfani (Engineering), Dr Madeleine Fagan (PAIS), Dr Lory Barile (Economics), Dr Feng Mao (IGSD) and Dr Adela Glyn-Davies (Design).