On Wednesday 6 November, members of the Sustainability and Resilience Institute (SRI) came together with academics, researchers, and students to host a celebration of its first anniversary and look ahead to its plans for the next year.
Since its launch in November 2023, the SRI have worked closely with academics to develop research projects covering pressing real-world topics such as decarbonisation, climate change, and food insecurity.
The anniversary event celebrated this work and also the launch of the latest University of Southampton Sustainable Development Goals report, collated by the SRI team, and which details contributions that the University has made to achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.
You can hear more about this report in December’s edition of Staff Matters.
Talks at the SRI anniversary event included Dr Vicky Dominiguez Almela (Teaching Fellow, School of Geography), who shared her findings from research exploring the prevention of sargassum seaweed across the coasts of Mexico and Ghana, and the empowerment of communities to capture and upload images to an app which closely monitors sargassum levels.
In an interactive panel, Jessica Boxall (Project Manager and Public Health Researcher), Lisa Bagust (LifeLab Enterprise Fellow), and Sian Campbell (Senior Enterprise Fellow) reflected on their experiences of leading research projects, working alongside and with the support of the SRI, the skills and opportunities they have developed with the SRI, and the successes they achieved through research seed funding.
Jon Lawn (SRI Collaboration Manager) shared his thoughts:
“It’s imperative that we keep bringing researchers at all career and study levels together; not just from those involved in environmental sciences, but also from the social sciences, arts and humanities, and other areas. Through the research networks we’ve launched throughout the year, we can help researchers develop ideas and access funding to tackle a whole host of sustainability challenges.”
Closing the event, Craig Hutton, SRI Director, detailed the strategic priorities for 2024/25, and its plan to build relationships between students from undergraduate through to PhD level and early career researchers to generate enthusiasm and a pipeline for research. Professor Hutton highlighted a vital need for further support to early-career and mid-level academics to lead research proposals to funders. The SRI also unveiled its plans to develop a suite of training programmes, writing retreats and internships through its new Centre for Postgraduate Research, which encourages students to engage with sustainability research across undergraduate and postgraduate study.
To get involved with SRI projects, network and collaborate with researchers, and discover funding opportunities, become a member today.