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Our latest research

A key goal on our way to sustainable is to progress the University’s contributions to the UN SDGs, guided by the insight from our research and building on the excellence of our education. As a world-leading research-intensive University, we are very well placed to tackle global challenges, through both disciplinary excellence and truly interdisciplinary and innovative research across the social sciences, arts and humanities, and science, engineering, and medicine. This mission is supported by the Institute for Global Sustainable Development, acting as a transdisciplinary gateway to research on global sustainable development at Warwick, and by faculties and many departments across the University that are focused on contributing to the SDGs within their research.

Actions we will take

  • increase the scale and quality of research programmes that address challenges related to the UN SDGs.
  • increase the impact of Warwick’s research to address global challenges, engage with communities, informing policy and decision-making towards a more sustainable future.
  • ensure our research is as sustainable as is possible, recognising the mix and diversity of our research portfolio, with the aim of being recognised as a leader in sustainable research and operations within the Russell Group. Working with the Estates and professional services teams: pilot the embedding of environmental impact assessments, put actions in place to reduce the impact of our research activity (e.g., of laboratory facilities and international travelling), and develop innovation programmes to reduce the need for ultra-cold storage.

Warwick’s Institute for Sustainable Development (IGSD) provides a focal point for Warwick’s sustainable development research, contributing towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) but still challenging of them. By establishing equitable partnerships with researchers and non-scientific stakeholders across the global North and the global South, IGSD works on challenge-led research projects that cross the boundaries of disciplines in the humanities, natural and social sciences, and achieve impact towards the SDGs. Link to IGSD strategy

Warwick has identified Global Research Priorities, bringing together expert academics from many different disciplines, to address some of the most challenging problems facing the world today. Our academics are focusing on exploring new ways of thinking and bringing new knowledge to important areas of international significance, from health to sustainable cities, energy to connecting cultures. Link to GRPs

The importance of the UN Sustainable Development Goals

In 2020, Warwick signed the SDG Accord, committing the University to monitoring and increasing our contributions to delivery of the societal targets associated with the SDGs and reporting annually on our own contributions towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). Read our UN SDG annual progress reports.

Addressing our environmental impact is fundamental to Warwick’s vision to build a better world, and to addressing the urgent challenges posed by the Climate Emergency. We recognise that climate action goes beyond reducing carbon emissions, and must consider how interdependencies, synergies, and trade-offs with social and economic issues impact the environment.


The UN SDGs inform how we define, approach, and address sustainability. The UN SDGs highlight the complex interdependencies between environmental, social, and economic sustainability by connecting the themes of People, Planet, Prosperity, Peace, and Partnership. We will use the UN SDGs as a framework for our sustainability activities, enabling us to recognise that, in advancing our ambitious climate action goals, we must not lose sight of the interlinkages and interdependencies between climate targets, and the other social and economic issues.

Social Inclusion at Warwick:
In 2019, Warwick launched its Social Inclusion Strategy to re-imagine the original purpose of setting up Warwick in 1965, to ‘increase access to Higher Education’. We aspire to remove economic, social, and cultural barriers that prevent people from working, studying and succeeding at Warwick.
Read more Social Inclusion (warwick.ac.uk)

Supporting UN SDG 10 through our research
Academics at Warwick are working in collaboration with international NGO Slum Dwellers International (SDI) and the University of Nottingham to understand how young people from urban informal settlements in South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone are being affected by climate change, and how local policy decisions can aid or hinder their capacity to adapt to it. The research particularly looks at how injustice arises through inequality of support and participation for the poorest communities, when compared to other communities, and aims to identify what can be done. The research is distinct in that it offers a clear ethics and justice framework that shows, not just what is involved in making climate response policy decisions at a local or national level but, what principles of ethics and justice should be considered and addressed in policymaking, and how they intersect. Find out more