THE UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS INTRODUCTION page The United Nations’ 17 Sustainable GOAL 1: NO POVERTY 2 Development Goals (SDGs) are our GOAL 2: ZERO HUNGER 4 world’s call to action on the most GOAL 3: GOOD HEALTH AND WELL-BEING 6 pressing challenges and opportunities facing humanity and the natural world. GOAL 4: QUALITY EDUCATION 8 With their unique role in creating and GOAL 5: GENDER EQUALITY 10 sharing knowledge, universities have a GOAL 6: CLEAN WATER AND SANITATION 12 direct role in addressing the challenges GOAL 7: AFFORDABLE AND CLEAN ENERGY 14 set out in Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. GOAL 8: DECENT WORK AND ECONOMIC GROWTH 16 GOAL 9: INDUSTRY, INNOVATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE 18 As one of the world’s leading research institutions and the UK’s only university to have social GOAL 10: REDUCED INEQUALITIES 20 responsibility as a core goal, The University of GOAL 11: SUSTAINABLE CITIES AND COMMUNITIES 22 Manchester is playing a leading role in tackling the SDGs in four ways: research impact, learning and GOAL 12: RESPONSIBLE PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION 24 students, public engagement activity and responsible GOAL 13: CLIMATE ACTION 26 campus operations. GOAL 14: LIFE BELOW WATER 28 The quality and scale of our impact against the GOAL 15: LIFE ON LAND 30 SDGs has been ranked first in Europe and third in the world in the 2019 Times Higher Education University GOAL 16: PEACE, JUSTICE AND STRONG INSTITUTIONS 32 Impact Rankings. We’ve also championed sustainable GOAL 17: PARTNERSHIPS FOR THE GOALS 34 development through higher education as a key signatory to the international SDG Accord which METHODOLOGY 36 commits ourselves to transparent reporting and CONTRIBUTION MAPPING 38 goal-setting through publications like this. UNIVERSITY IMPACT RANKINGS FOR THE SDGs 39 This report is aimed at a wide range of local, national and international audiences across the public, private, WHAT NEXT? 40 NGO, policy and education sectors. We hope it RESEARCH INSTITUTES AND RESEARCH BEACONS 41 stimulates further ideas, actions and collaboration opportunities and partnerships so that, together, we can play a full role in tackling the world’s SDGs by 2030. Dr Julian Skyrme Director of Social Responsibility The University of Manchester < CONTENTS 1 1 1 Units on SDG 1 109 79 direct (2.35% of all courses) Khalid Malik former 30 indirect director of the UN’s (0.9%) End poverty in all its Human Development forms everywhere Report Office. 4,830 direct PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT (2.1% of all engagements) 3,436 indirect RESEARCH (1.5%) LEARNING A Human Development Report Global Development Institute AND STUDENTS for Greater Manchester Our Global Development Institute (GDI) PhD students We published the Human Development is Europe’s largest research and teaching Study programmes from our Global institute focused on poverty and Development Report for Greater Manchester in Our Global Development Institute inequality. The GDI runs the Effective Institute June 2017. The report mirrors the is the UK’s largest university-based States and Inclusive Development UN approach by measuring human postgraduate centre specialising in (ESID) Research Centre, which development in Greater Manchester international development. More than investigates how politics promotes across three themes of health, 2,000 students have completed master’s inclusive development and government knowledge and standards of living. It also programmes in international development accountability. Recent research examines key life stages from early years since 2012. through school to adulthood, midlife, suggests that countries with the highest OPERATIONS older working age and old age. The government capacity can reduce Big Change Society income poverty at twice the speed of researchers found that most inequalities Everyday Austerity Based in our University’s Students’ Union, The Works Student financial support countries with the weakest capacity. are down to differences in the labour Our Everyday Austerity research project in the Big Change Society supports people The Works aims to transform life Many students from disadvantaged Spanning 16 countries, our research market and that families with children our School of Environment, Education and who are homeless by paying for essential chances in our local community by backgrounds face financial pressures is deepening the understanding of are particularly over-represented in low Development has revealed the impact items such as home deposits, training supporting unemployed people back during undergraduate study. We’re governance in developing countries, and skilled jobs or unemployment, relative to of austerity policies on everyday life for courses and clothes for job interviews. into work. This is achieved through our committed to ensuring that financial helping to influence policy and practices the average for England. families and communities in Greater The society also signposts students employer-led one-stop-shop in a local issues do not present an obstacle and improve people’s lives. Manchester. As a result, we’ve advised, towards the best ways they can get community with free-to-use computers for learners. We have one of largest trained and empowered a wide range of involved with ending homelessness and for job searches or writing applications, cohorts of students from low-income local groups and communities to tackle promoting responsible giving. support for interview preparation and households and one of the most Research in numbers: SDG 1 social injustices resulting from austerity. guidance by staff along the way. The generous financial Our findings were presented in an Amrita Live-in-Labs initiative is led and organised by The support packages exhibition that turned peoples’ stories into Our Amrita Live-in-Labs Project puts University of Manchester in partnership in the UK. 13,360 123 a series of drawings, photographs, audio scientific and engineering research with the Manchester £19m Citation impact Growth Company. publications based on international excerpts and objects to engage the public to practical use for societal benefit in invested 2009-18 benchmark of 100 and bring these experiences to life. India, a country that is home to 33% of in financial support for the world’s poor. For example, students low-income students – from our Department of Materials the highest in the UK’s 105 4,000 Russell Group 3.67% of all UK Research outputs people taken out of designed a smokeless stove for cooking of universities publications 10.30% in huts to reduce respiratory problems unemployment since National contribution 2009-18 and developed strategies to educate 2011 through The Works partnership (based on SDSN keywords) (based on Elsevier methodology) children in mathematics in Chhattisgarh, a state with one of the poorest rates of educational achievement in India. < CONTENTS 2 < CONTENTS 3 2 Units on SDG 2 2 36 27 direct (0.80% of all courses) 9 indirect (0.27%) End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture 1,159 direct (0.50% of all engagements) RESEARCH PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT 464 indirect (0.20%) Food insecurity in the UK Sustainable agriculture through Promoting good agricultural land Working with Manchester City Council, electronic engineering management in Malawi Cracking Good Food, Save the Children, The environmental impacts of intensive Our Department of Earth and Oxfam and other charities, our Cathie agriculture and a growing global Environmental Sciences is working with Marsh Institute for Social Research and population are increasing the need for farmers in Malawi, some of the poorest Institute for Collaborative Research on more effective processes. Researchers in the world, to help share knowledge Ageing conducted pioneering research in our Department of Electrical and about plant and soil management through to document food insecurity in the UK Electronic Engineering are examining delivering free workshops and building a following the economic recession. We how electronic engineering might laboratory that will be the first of its kind studied homelessness, street begging, improve food supply and sustainable in the country. Malawi is ranked within the LEARNING AND STUDENTS food-bank use and financial difficulties energy production, without increased five poorest nations of the world and one faced by older women, and developed pressures on our land. E-Agri Manchester of the least developed. Its agricultural Study programmes Manchester Central Foodbank aims to use e-devices for precision OPERATIONS a pilot tool for helping older people with sector accounts for a third of its GDP and Our students are gaining understanding We’re proud to have the UK’s first agriculture, reducing waste, increasing their nutrition. Our research influenced approximately 80% of its overall exports. We support the Humanity Giving Back yields and making crops more resilient. on how to develop solutions to end student-run foodbank based on campus. the political debate on food insecurity Agriculture clearly holds great potential This might involve using sensors that hunger and food insecurity Manchester Central Foodbank was charity through food donations and staff and raised awareness of the issue in for enhancing the social and economic founded in 2013 by a group of students volunteering. Started by one of our chefs, detect weeds, nutrient deficiency or low Our BA in Geography offers the the media. development of communities in Malawi. who were passionate about