Within the University's Sustainability Sub-Strategy and Climate Action Plan 2021-26, research is one of the priorities. The following objective highlights this:
[We aim] to have increased the proportion of our research that supports the enhancement and protection of the environment, and to ensure our research is conducted in a way that minimises our environmental impact.
Our researchers are fundamental to this aim, as innovation will be key to addressing the sustainability crisis.
The University's webpages have a wide range of information about Essex' research on sustainability, including details of current research projects, as well as latest news and blog posts on the topic.
In 2015, the United Nations adopted 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that by 2030 all people enjoy peace and prosperity.
Better understanding these SDGs, and where your research relates to the themes, can help to demonstrate the impact of your work. Follow the links below to learn more about each of the SDGs, and read more about the importance of SDG literacy and relating your research to the goals on the UN's webpages.
The Times Higher Education World University Rankings (THE WUR) uses the UN's SDGs to help demonstrate the impact of research. As the database that provides information to the THE WUR, Scopus maps documents indexed within its database to the 17 SDGs. The aspects of the document metadata that are considered for Scopus' mapping are:
By using Scopus' advanced search, researchers and institutions track and demonstrate progress towards the targets of the SDGs. For more information about how to use Scopus to analyse SDGs, head to Scopus' website or get in touch.
Open research, or ‘open science’ as it is also known, includes openness throughout the research cycle. This means that researchers work collaboratively, sharing knowledge and experiences throughout their processes. This includes making methodologies, software, code, and research findings freely available online.
Open research has wide-ranging benefits. At the core of the open research movement is the idea of fairness, and allowing society as a whole to access scientific research, not just those with paid access. This is especially important for publicly funded research, and in developing countries.
Open research subsequently has a fundamental role in helping to address the world's climate crisis as efficiently as possible. The UN describes open science's role in addressing the climate crisis in the following way:
"Open Science has the potential of making the scientific process more transparent, inclusive and democratic. It is increasingly recognized as a critical accelerator for the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and a true game changer in bridging the science, technology and innovation gaps and fulfilling the human right to science." UNESCO
Open research can help address the climate crisis in many ways. Just a few examples are outlined below:
To find out more, take a look at UNESCO's recommendation on open science.
For the 2023-24 academic year, the Essex Student Journal launched a special issue on the topic of sustainability. The Essex Student Journal publishes the work of undergraduate and masters students at Essex. By focusing on sustainability for our special issue, we provided an exciting opportunity for our students to get involved in the conversation surrounding sustainability, whilst also gaining an authentic experience of the publishing process.
To read the issue, please click here.
The Essex student Journal continues to encourage the submission of work on a range of topics, including Sustainability. If you have a piece of work you would like to submit, you can find out how to do so here. We are also looking for Peer reviewers. All peer reviewers for the Essex Student Journal are current Postgraduate Researchers at Essex, so if you are a PGR student who is interested in playing your part in developing the conversations around sustainability or any other topics covered in the journal, do sign up to be a peer reviewer. We also have further guidance available on what's involved with volunteering as a peer reviewer with the Essex Student Journal, and if you have any questions do get in touch.
Except where otherwise noted, this work by University of Essex Library and Cultural Services is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence.
