Sustainable Developement Goals at the University of Southampton

A key component of the University of Southampton’s vision is to continue to act as a world-leading research-intensive institution which plays an essential role in changing the world for the better. To achieve this, it brings together national and international academics, industry partners and policy stakeholders to generate knowledge that offer solutions to the greatest challenges faced by our societies. Arguably, never has this ambition been so timely and the need for scientific advice to inform public policies so strong and publically sought after. Less than 5 months before the United Kingdom (UK) hosts the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) and less than a month since the UK hosted G7 Cornwall 2021 (where the world’s leading democracies committed to ‘Build Back Better’ from COVID-19 towards a greener future), we remain in the face of the challenge of our time: ensuring that economic development fosters a fairer society while preserving the environment for generations to come.

The magnitude and urgency of the challenge are clearly reflected in the United Nations Member States unanimous adoption in 2015 of a broad and universal policy agenda - the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development - at the heart of which lie the renowned 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 associated targets which are integrated and indivisible. Moreover, nationally, States have committed to the delivery of the SDGs and their associated targets. Leading the way, the United Kingdom (UK) fully embedded the Goals in the activities of relevant Government Departments, and updated its climate-change-focused legislative and policy framework through publishing a set of overarching strategy documents (e.g. “Build Back Better”; “The Clean Growth Strategy”; “The Ten Point Plan”; “Sixth Carbon Budget”; etc.), establishing statutory bodies to advise HM Government and overlook progress made towards them and aligning its research strategy to seek expert evidence around key objectives to inform decision-making. The Prime Minister’s recently announced plan to establish a new National Science and Technology Council and a new Office for Science and Technology Strategy within HM Cabinet Office is another step towards strategically developing and employing science and technology to face imminent societal challenges, including the push to reach net zero.

Within this context, one of the novelties of the University of Southampton’s Sustainability Strategy 2020-25 is its aspiration to “make sustainability a cornerstone of [its] research and societal impact”. Coupled with the University’s outlook as a global research-intensive institution, the Strategy sets researchers and supporting staff on course to contribute in making the change that would help ensure that “all people enjoy peace and prosperity”. One way they University’s Sustainability Implementation Group (SIG) is seeking to achieve this is by inviting researchers to highlight the relevance of their varying projects to one or more of the SDGs – an interesting initiative which made me reflect on my own journey in research.

Back in 2015, I enrolled in the University of Southampton’s LLM in Maritime Law programme. Being a qualified lawyer in Lebanon, a small country on the East Mediterranean coast with a shipping history that dates back to the Phoenician times and whose economy strongly depends on import/export activities, my aim was to increase my market value by specialising in International Trade Law. A year-and-a-half later, I was presented with the opportunity to undertake a funded-PhD at the University’s Institute of Maritime Law.  Being aware of the [back then] recent discoveries of oil and gas fields off the coast of Lebanon, I maintained my commercial focus and decided to research on the subject of the obligation of States to regulate the risks of transboundary pollution from oil and gas exploration and extraction activities. However, despite my broad understanding of the value of research in shaping the future of our societies, it was not until the final year of my doctoral studies that I began to truly grasp the dynamics of evidence-informed decision-making and the role of research in shaping and implementing policies as opposed to merely responding to current [and often localised] market demands. It was thanks to my part-time employment with Public Policy|Soutampton (PPS) that I familiarised myself with the role of research in producing tangible outcomes that would present practical solutions for our societies’ most pressing challenges.   

During my time with PPS, I had the chance to work with academics with expertise across various disciplines, focusing on highlighting the value that the research being conducted brings to current and future policies as well as on establishing effective links with key stakeholders and policymakers, most notably in HM Government and the UK Parliament. Owing to the breadth of expertise at the University, the projects I worked on ranged from preconception health to building capacity for internationally collaborative research to face the challenges posed by climate change in the Arctic. As a result, importantly, I developed an awareness of the direct relevance of these projects to various SDGs (SDG 3 “Good Health and Well-Being” for the former and SDG 13 “Climate Action” for the latter). Moreover, I facilitated the transfer of knowledge around, inter alia, emission reduction technologies and the use of lithium ion-batteries to the Southampton-based Governmental body and key regulator of the UK shipping industry, the Maritime Coastguard Agency, through creating consultancy and placement opportunities for University of Southampton academics and early career researchers (working to directly support SDG 13).  

Following my experience with PPS, and having been awarded my PhD, I was offered an opportunity for full-time employment with the Southampton Marine and Maritime Institute (SMMI) as Marine and Maritime Policy Research Fellow. My new role gave me a distinctive chance to continue to create policy-focused opportunities and provide specialised support for the University’s marine and maritime academics via PPS, while also focusing on developing my research portfolio. Through both these aspects, I came to support the University’s aim to tie research with the wider objective of sustainability. On the one hand, I worked with colleagues across the SMMI on various projects which directly fed into SDG 13 “Climate Action” and SDG 14 “Life Below Water”; and on the other hand, my personal research interest shifted from developing the legal understanding around an inherently unsustainable and therefore declining activity (oil and gas extraction) towards providing clarity for the use of key environmental protection principles in different settings in line with all the SDGs .

This “change” in my research interests was partly motivated by my interaction with promising early career researchers across the globe via my selection to the Association of Commonwealth Universities and the British Council’s Commonwealth Futures Climate Research Cohort which exposed me to the diverse perceptions of “sustainable action” in different communities. The continuously rising tensions between developed and developing States during the recent meeting of the International Maritime Organization’s Marine Environmental Protection also embodies these challenges. Simply put, despite the interconnectedness of various SGDs, conflicts of interests amongst various stakeholders at national, regional and international levels entail that it is not a straightforward task to align them together and work towards achieving them coherently. Thus, a multi-disciplinary, internationally collaborative approach must be adopted for research to reinforce trust amongst various stakeholders and bring down important barriers for action. With this understanding, and as a member of the University’s SIG and the PPS Sustainability Champion, I wholeheartedly applaud and support the vision and initiatives that the University’s leadership has adopted in that direction and encourage my fellow colleagues to actively engage with them moving forward.

Dr Wassim Dbouk, Marine and Maritime Policy Research Fellow, University of Southampton

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