12 minute read
Tackling global challenges: Embracing the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
In 2015, world leaders adopted an Agenda for tackling the most pressing issues for sustainable development, setting out 17 goals to be achieved by 2030. As a global university, Imperial College London has embraced the Agenda and is working hard to help meet those goals.
It’s intriguing to consider how 17 was settled upon as the number of United Nations Sustainable Development Goals to be achieved by 2030. As numbers go, it’s not an obvious candidate for a countdown, but then it’s unlikely the goals were conceived with a set figure in mind. And even more unlikely is the idea that there was any intention for them to be ticked off the list one by one.
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The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are highly interconnected and were conceived as a collective plan to navigate a sustainable future for the next generations through collaboration and cooperation. The seventeenth goal around partnership is not an afterthought, but the bedrock on which the others are to be achieved.
As an institution with collaboration running through its veins – and one with over 16,000 of the next generation studying within its student community – the philosophy behind the SDGs chimes instinctively with Imperial’s ethos. Through direct initiatives such as the Global Development Hub, and a plethora of activities and innovations embedded within its ecosystem, Imperial has all of the 17 SDGs – and the interconnections between them – well within its sights.
The role of science
Science is central to the Sustainable Development Agenda. Research can provide an evidence-base for its implementation, a means to evaluate its progress and a platform from which to develop innovative solutions. Interdisciplinary research is particularly important, not
only because of the different sectors that the goals span, but because it’s by crossing disciplinary boundaries that real innovation can occur.
Imperial has built a cluster of centres and institutions with interdisciplinary working at their core and issues of sustainability as their targets. These include the Grantham Institute – Climate Change and the Environment, Institute of Global Health Innovation, Centre for Environmental Policy, and Energy Futures Lab. Their expertise has already achieved an impact by enabling research to translate into meaningful solutions and through developing external partnerships. For example, research from the Energy Future Labs has been integral to Imperial spinoffs such as Ceres Power, which is making fuel-cell technology accessible for a variety of applications, while the Institute of Global Health Innovation is working to improve the safety of healthcare on a global scale.
Professor David Nabarro is Co-Director of the Institute of Global Health Innovation and played a key role in the analysis and development of the Sustainable Development Agenda. He is very clear about the role of interdisciplinary science. “Imperial is a university “There’s a huge amount of synergy between what Imperial stands for and what the Agenda requires. Imperial works with communities in London and beyond; it’s a future.”
Professor David Nabarro,
Co-Director of the Institute of Global Health Innovation
Transition to Zero Pollution initiative
Spanning the range of pollution from plastics to aerosols to particulates, the initiative is bringing together researchers from across Imperial. Converging disciplines, from fundamental science and engineering, systems thinking, human health, new business models, and policymaking, it has enrolled two cohorts of PhD students and has scholarships available for undergraduates.
The Invention Room activities
• Maker Challenge – programmes for local young people to develop an idea and see it through to creation. • Agents of Change – a unique women’s leadership programme and network which aims to support local women to lead social change in their communities. • What the Tech!? – a programme to help older members of the community get online and make the most of their smartphones, laptops and other digital devices.
“There’s a huge amount that Imperial can do to support and foster a mindset of innovation and enable people to take chances to see how we can address sustainability issues. This is happening not only through education but also through Imperial’s support of deep-tech enterprises and its impressive commercialisation networks.”
Mike Simpson,
CEO of Cheesecake Energy Ltd
where there is a lot of individual brilliance,” he says. “And a real culture of working across departments. At the heart of this are the interdisciplinary institutes that organise the experts, so they don’t just focus on their specialities, but on the big problems of the future.”
Education across generations
Universities are also major contributors to the Sustainable Development Agenda through the provision of opportunities for learning and thinking about global challenges. There are a large number of interdisciplinary courses available to students within Imperial. Alongside this, the Change Makers Independent Project provides an overarching opportunity for third-year and fourth-year students to upskill in the global sustainability field by undertaking an independent project that explores a global issue of their choice. Over 240 students registered for this optional module in 2020.
At the postgraduate level, the Global Fellows Programme brings together doctoral students from around the world to focus on developing research and professional skills to tackle issues of sustainability.
The SDGs of education run deeper and broader than undergraduate and postgraduate courses, with a need to consider how to make learning more accessible and inclusive across age groups. Since 2010, Imperial has run the pioneering Wohl Reach Out Lab to inspire and engage young people from all backgrounds in science, technology, engineering
“It’s part of Imperial’s mission for its research to benefit society and, as such, addressing sustainable development is embedded in its core research activities. This, combined with its supportive enterprise ecosystem, means that a lot of the entrepreneurial activities coming from Imperial are naturally looking to solve sustainability problems.”
Dr Ola Hekselman,
CEO and Co-Founder of Solveteq
and mathematics (STEM). In 2017, The Invention Rooms opened at the White City Campus, offering local people the opportunity to access workshops, cutting-edge design studios and interactive spaces to help them innovate, build prototypes, and learn more about science and technology.
Starting-up small to meet big challenges
Innovation has been recognised as key to tackling the big sustainability issues of today and tomorrow, but even the most impressive ideas still need support and belief to flourish and become tractable solutions. The Imperial Enterprise ecosystem aims to provide that support at different stages of the entrepreneurial journey. Initiatives such as the Imperial Enterprise Lab and Advanced Hackspace offer different forms of support through programmes, competitions, events, facilities and mentoring, while access to spaces such as the Imperial White City Incubator and the Translational & Innovation Hub allow fledgling startups to develop into fully grown companies that are sustainable in their own right. The new Scale Space (see story on page 42) now provides that extra leg room and leg up for those companies growing past the startup stage.
Tackling big sustainability goals requires solutions with deep tech at their roots, and these involve a form of support that accounts for the time and facilities needed to bring these innovations to market. Through an ongoing series of programmes, the MedTech SuperConnector has helped the progress of a range of medical devices to address goals around good health and inequalities, including wearables to help the management and treatment of debilitating conditions, as well as affordable diagnostic and monitoring devices for point-of-need use in the community. Alongside this, the Institute for Deep Tech Entrepreneurship has been created to better understand how to overcome the specific barriers faced by these startups and to develop models of funding and learning to help these companies (see story on the Institute for Deep Tech Entrepreneurship on page 40).
Through accessing the necessary support when and where they need it, startups such as RFC Power and Solveteq are successfully developing ways to transition to 100% renewable energy and
WE Innovate
The Enterprise Lab’s WE Innovate programme has supported 400 female entrepreneurs in total, while 59 ventures have been incorporated and £16 million has been raised in funding. Programme graduate Olivia Ahn, Co-founder and CEO of PLANERA, was able to pursue the development of the company full-time because of the support received through WE Innovate. PLANERA has developed the world’s first certified zero-waste, flushable menstrual pads to tackle the environmental impact of disposable sanitary products. It’s working with the Indian Government to develop low-cost reusable sanitary pads that can be given to schools and villages.
“WE Innovate taught me many valuable firsts. My first minimal viable product, my first business plan and dealing with the first of many failures. The incredible network of WE Innovate helped me launch my startup and get it to where we are today, and the network continues to support and cheer us on. I’m thrilled to see so many Imperial startups with sustainability as a prerequisite for their differentiable product. I truly believe this is an accurate representation of how the market and industries are evolving today.”
Dr Olivia Ahn, Co-Founder and CEO of PLANERA and WE Innovate graduate
recycle lead–acid batteries. In the medtech realm, startups such as Unhindr and VUI Diagnostics are tackling health inequalities by improving prosthetics and developing community eye testing to combat eye disease.
Meeting the goals head on
As well as supporting young entrepreneurs working in sustainability, the Imperial Enterprise Lab is tackling the goal around gender equality directly through its WE Innovate programme. This aims to increase the number of women in leadership positions, running startups and raising funding.
Recently, as a response to working towards the Sustainable Development Goals, the Imperial Enterprise Lab launched the Global Challenge Lab in partnership with Tsinghua Univeristies X-Lab. This initiative sees Imperial working with 11 global university partners to bring students and alumni together to grow their international network, gain new skills and create new ideas that help achieve SDGs. The first of these events focused on the third SDG of ‘Good Health and Wellbeing’.
Bringing it all together
Considering the large and varied number of initiatives at Imperial, a need to give them a virtual roof under which to stand was recognised. Earlier this year the Global Development Hub was launched to create a central repository for Imperial’s existing activities, while also establishing new networks and education programmes. Its overarching aim is to maximise the global impact of research, education and innovation to engage with the Sustainable Development Agenda 2030.
“The Hub is about bringing people together
Imperial startups tackling global challenges
RFC Power is an Imperial spinout developing a low-cost, long-duration battery that will facilitate the transition to 100% renewable energy. The team is currently working on a project to improve access to clean, reliable and affordable energy in Sub-Saharan Africa. One of the company’s founders participated in Techcelerate and the company is now based in the Imperial White City Incubator.
Solveteq (1) has developed an approach to recycling lead–acid batteries that could potentially replace current methods which are both energy intensive and highly polluting. The process uses a solvent that can be solid at room temperature but forms a liquid when mixed and can dissolve metal compounds. CEO and co-founder, Dr Ola Hekselman, was on the Techcelerate programme and worked with mentors from Imperial Venture Mentoring Service.
Unhindr is developing a comfortable, adaptable prosthetic liner using soft robotics and AI. It was founded by an Imperial student with assistance from the MedTech SuperConnector and early-stage funding from the European Institute of Innovation & Technology (EIT) Health. Cheesecake Energy Limited (2) is developing energy storage at half the cost of the lithium–ion batteries which are the current market leader. The startup’s system uses compressed air and thermal energy storage to achieve high efficiency, long lifetime and a dramatically lower environmental impact. It was part of Imperial’s Venture Catalyst Challenge and worked with mentors from the Imperial Venture Mentoring Service.
VUI Diagnostics (3) was founded by two final-year Imperial medical students who wanted to make eye screening tools more effective and accessible in order to tackle avoidable blindness. They’ve developed a portable plug-and-play device and software that improves access to community eye testing and enables earlier detection of eye disease. The team won the Venture Catalyst Challenge and was part of the MedTech SuperConnector.
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to focus on these huge problems,” says Professor David Nabarro, who led the Q&A at the launch event. “And in a way, that responds to the interests of the people for whom we’re responsible. It’s a place for learning and reflection to enable new ways of thinking, acting, monitoring and communicating so we can work on these complex issues.”
The Hub has started an ‘SDG of the Month’ event series which aims to bring panellists from different areas together to discuss specific goals. It’s also establishing a number of international initiatives and has worked with representatives from the United Nations Development Programme to discuss how the accelerator labs in their countries are working towards SDG 5 on Gender Equality.
Sustainability within a pandemic
The drive behind the Sustainable Development Agenda has undoubtedly been affected by the pandemic and the full impact of this is yet to be seen. COVID-19 has shone a light onto existing inequalities and made it apparent that we remain vulnerable to a number of challenges. But it’s also enabled valuable shifts and realisations.
By harnessing these shifts and enabling interdisciplinary and collaborative science to bring innovative solutions and strategies to the fore, the hope is that the SDGs will be realised. And perhaps the number 17 will become a figure with its own legacy and meaning for future generations.
Global Challenge Lab 21
The first Global Challenge Lab was sponsored by Huawei and Nestle and co-funded by Bristol Myers Squibb. Representatives from 11 university partners came together over ten days for a series of keynotes, panels, networking sessions and workshops. The programme culminated in a competition between 58 participating teams to generate the best solution to achieve SDG 3: Good Health and Wellbeing. The winning team developed a platform to connect mothers and midwives in sub-Saharan Africa and included members from the University of Sao Paulo, the University of Ghana, the University of Toronto and Imperial College London.
Professor David Nabarro,
Co-Director of the Institute for Global Health Innovation.
The future vaccine manufacturing hub
Based at Imperial and partnering with collaborators from the UK and low-to-middleincome countries, the Hub is providing essential research infrastructure and expertise to support the development and manufacture of a vaccine for SARS-CoV-2. It’s also developing modular methods for manufacture that enables rapid vaccine development for highly infectious pathogens in low-income countries.
The challenge of COVID-19 has placed science and research more centrally in policy decisions and allowed us to see what’s possible through collaboration in the face of global challenges. “Students need to feel that the SDGs capture and frame issues they care deeply about and empower them to create and live change in their own communities and beyond.”
Dr Elizabeth Haucke,
Course Director of Change Makers module. Find out more about how Imperial is tackling the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals on the Global Development hub:
