Several new initiatives presented during the Leadership Council in Stockholm on the 26th of October

Today the Leadership Council of SDSN Northern Europe (NE) gathered for a meeting at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm. The Leadership Council meets two times every year to give the network strategic advice. In today’s meeting, several new and interesting initiatives were presented and discussed.

One of the topics was SDG’s in Universities. There is a lot of unused potential for cooperation among universities to integrate the SDG’s into their research, education and campus activities. SDSN NE will unlock this unused potential by organising a collaborative platform where universities can pinpoint problematic issues and jointly identify solutions.

The series of Solution Initiative Forums (SIF) arranged by SDSN NE focus on a specific theme each year. The tematic area for the upcoming SIF 2019 was decided to be Air Pollution. Air pollution gives serious health effects and relates to several of the SDG’s globally and also in the Nordic countries. We plan to arrange the next SIF on the 28 August, in connection to the European Aerosol Conference in Gothenburg.

Many actors in society need to understand how the results from various activities and actions impact the SDG’s. Our development of the SDG Impact Assessment Tool has now entered a new phase. Work is ongoing to digitalize the tool and to make it freely available online for everybody.

The invited speaker Ingrid Petersson, Director General of the Swedish Research Council Formas and Chair of the Swedish delegation for the 2030 Agenda, presented her view on the implementation of Agenda 2030.

“To succeed, the 2030 Agenda must be part of regular management and processes – become a part of the DNA!”

In her opinion, decisions in the parliament are key and municipalities and regions are pivotal for the implementation. Academic research is also important for the implementation of the agenda. Scientist can identify and diagnose, present solutions, engage in dialogue and coordination and also critically assess the global goals.

SDSN Northern Europe thanks the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and Carl Folke for hosting the meeting and we look forward to the next Leadership Council meeting, planned for March 2019. Meanwhile, we look forward to meeting our members at upcoming conferences and events.

By: Nina Silow