Dear All,
After three years of extensive discussions and careful planning, the University Board decided on 18th September to establish the University of Oslo’s new Centre for Global Sustainability.
The Sustainable Health Unit (SUSTAINIT) will, through its employees, be one of the permanent environments associated with the centre.
In addition to SUSTAINIT, the Centre for Development and the Environment (SUM) and the three strategic initiatives (UiO: Life Science, UiO: Democracy, and UiO: Energy and Environment) will also be part of the centre. Each in a slightly different way.
At SUSTAINIT, we look forward to contributing our work on sustainable health in this new and dynamic arena for interdisciplinary research, education, and knowledge exchange.
Why Do We Need a Global Sustainability Centre?
Interdisciplinary knowledge is the key to addressing the climate crisis. Knowledge about the foundations of life for humans and other species must be understood in relation to each other – and to the cultural and institutional frameworks that frame their existence. This necessitates a global perspective: Sustainable transition fundamentally involves a shift away from overconsumption in high-income countries and overproduction through global value chains that exploit people in poor countries, destroy the environment, and undermine the economic and governance conditions for well-functioning societies globally.
The climate crisis is not distributed fairly. In 2023, the Earth experienced the warmest three-month period ever recorded, and the potential health consequences are particularly significant for people in low-income countries.
In addition to the increased risk of malnutrition, climate change leads to an increase in food-borne, water-borne, and vector-borne diseases. According to GAVI, up to 8.4 billion people could be at risk of diseases like dengue fever and malaria by the end of the century if emissions continue to rise at current levels. From a health perspective, sustainable transition is therefore closely linked with global health and pandemic preparedness, which are SUSTAINIT’s primary focus areas.
With the new centre, SUSTAINIT will have the opportunity to address these challenges in collaboration with experts on other aspects of the transition, such as biodiversity, democracy, culture, and governance institutions. The new centre will also be uniquely positioned for cross-sector collaboration, ensuring that knowledge development happens in interaction with the various stakeholders involved in the transition.
What is the Centre for Global Sustainability?
The new centre is directly under the university board and will have a flexible organisation to accommodate both permanent and temporary academic environments and various forms of affiliation.
According to the proposal to the University Board, the centre has the following objectives:
- Strengthen interdisciplinary research on sustainability at a high international level.
- Strengthen education and lifelong learning on global sustainability across disciplines.
- Create an attractive arena for knowledge sharing and dissemination within global sustainability.
- Develop inclusive collaborative forums for students, researchers, and external partners.
- Increase access to external funding for research and education.
- Provide a flexible structure and organisation that accommodates both permanent and temporary research environments in line wi