Goal 17: Partnerships for the Goals

SDG reporting

In April 2022 Cranfield signed the SDG Accord.

During the year we published a number of reports highlighting our sustainability progress, including our Annual Environment Report; SDG Accord report including three case studies; and Sustainability in Action: United Nations Principles of Responsible Management Education (download on this web page).

Collaborating

Cranfield was one of eight universities from the UK and Ireland that worked together in 2022 to explore how they could promote and utilise the SDGs to drive institutional change across research and culture, their curricula and their sense of place in the community.

Partnerships

Our global partnerships are important to us. In 2021/22 we entered a new partnership with the National Crime Agency and renewed our partnerships with Babcock and Santander Universities. We signed a skills agreement with Airbus and entered a new strategic partnership with Regional and City Airports.

Working with governments

We work with NGOs and governments around the world to help develop SDG related policies. Examples in 2021/22 have included working with the Welsh government on soil policy and with the Thai government on foresight into the BCG Economy. As part of a consortium of UK universities, Cranfield, alongside the governments of the UK and Rwanda, the University of Rwanda, and the UN, have designed and led on the Africa Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Cooling and Cold Chain (ACES) which is the first of its kind dedicated to generating ideas and technology to support sustainable cooling without exacerbating climate change. Cranfield also contributes to FORENV – the EU Foresight System for Emerging Environmental Issues. In 2021/22 FORENV reported on emerging issues impacting the delivery of a zero-pollution ambition by 2050.

Strategic dialogue

Our cross-sectoral dialogue supporting the SDGs in 2021/22 has included the culmination of the first Global Aviation Summit. As part of Manufacturing and Materials Week, the National Manufacturing Debate focused on the UK’s green recovery plan, and Manufacturing 2075 looked at the space industry and the technical and environmental challenges that throws up. The Resilience Grand Challenge also took part in the 76th United Nations General Assembly discussions.

International research collaboration

Much of our research involves international collaboration to collect data to support the SDGs. Just one example that we reported in 2021/22 was the NextGen EU project, in which a consortium of over 30 organisations conducted a survey to find up-to-date views on the state of acceptance of wastewater recycling (direct potable reuse). We also continue to host the FAAM Airborne Laboratory – a world-class research facility dedicated to the advancement of atmospheric science – and to partner with National Centre for Atmospheric Science (NCAS).

Education for the goals

In 2021/22, we introduced a new Sustainability master's-level apprenticeship which was among the first of its kind in the UK to be available via the Apprenticeship Levy. This added to our comprehensive sustainability education programmes.

Outreach

We continued to support communities to understand SDGs, for example, through our speaker series and our student Green Team. We introduced free-at-the-point-of-delivery support to local businesses.

Cranfield has outlined its commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and our activity to support them.

Universities have a crucial role in helping to address some of the most pressing issues facing our world today. Signing the SDG Accord makes clear Cranfield’s ongoing focus on bringing academic expertise, industry insight and new technological developments to government, business and wider society.

Cranfield delivers sustainability education programmes, including apprenticeships and master's courses (MSc Management and Corporate Sustainability and MSc Sustainability).

We have direct involvement in governmental policy setting, for example, regionally, the MACRO cyber security programme is a collaboration with the Universities of Kent and Bath, Oxfordshire County Council, Kent County Council, South East Midlands Local Enterprise Partnership, Transport for the South East to develop tools and models to address low carbon mobility, data sharing and cybersecurity threats.

Conferences have included hosting an online round table on our Resilience Grand Challenge at the UNGA76 Science Summit, part of the 76th UN General Assembly in New York.

We have also participated in international collaboration in gathering data for the SDGs, for example, Cranfield partners with the National Centre for Atmospheric Science to host the Facility for Airborne Atmospheric Measurements (FAAM), a world-class research facility dedicated to gathering data to advance atmospheric science.

As part of our student volunteer programme, Cranfield students run Silsoe Aid for Appropriate Development (SAFAD) which sends mostly Cranfield, graduate and postgraduate, student volunteers to almost 40 different countries in the developing world. Volunteers work with local organisations to provide technical assistance and expertise.

We are taking part in The Times Higher Education Impact Rankings for the first time in 2021.