Category: Sustainability

Transformation by design or by disaster – Why we need more transformative research now

Global society is beset with many ‘wicked problems’ that are unlikely to be resolved by traditional disciplinary research methods. In this post, Kristina Bogner, Michael P. Schlaile and Sophie Urmetzer discuss the concept of transformative research and…

The hitchhiker’s guide to co-production: Six ways to link knowledge and action for sustainability

By directly linking research processes to change makers, co-production promises to create more impactful knowledge and actions. However, what co-production means in practice is not always clear or consistent. Drawing on the experiences of 32 co-product…

Without social sciences, humanities and arts, the goal of sustainability may never be reached

Eric Neumayer and Charles Joly argue that the key challenges posed by making a transition to a sustainable net-zero carbon economy are social, rather than technological. As such, instead of waiting for technological change to simply emerge, in the post…

Sustainable Science as a Vocation

What would sustainable research and higher education mean as a vocation? Drawing on the sociologist Max Weber’s famous lecture on science as a vocation, Gorgi Krlev, outlines a vision of sustainable science, arguing that for academic research to effectively contribute to resolving the major challenges facing society it must embrace profound change on four levels. … Continued

Four principles for practising and evaluating co-production – a view from sustainability research.

The co-production paradigm has become commonplace across many disciplines as a means of orchestrating the production of useful knowledge aligned to different social needs. Drawing on the expertise of 36 co-production practitioners in the field of sustainability research, Dr Albert Norström, Dr Chris Cvitanovic, Dr Marie F. Löf, Dr Simon West and Dr Carina Wyborn, present … Continued

Data Infrastructure, Education & Sustainability: Notes from the Symposium on the Interagency Strategic Plan for Big Data

Last week, the  National Academies Board on Research Data and Information hosted a Symposium on the Interagency Strategic Plan for Big Data. Staff from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Geological Survey and the National Institute for Standards and Technology presented on ongoing work to establish an interagency strategic plan […]

White House Climate Data Initiative Addresses Climate Change Through Open Data

On March 19, 2014, the White House launched the Climate Data Initiative (CDI), part of President Obama’s Climate Action Plan launched in June 2013.  The Climate Action Plan is the Administration’s blueprint for domestic and international efforts to prepare for the impacts of climate change and reduce carbon emissions.  The CDI is meant to spur …

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