The Global Sustainability Institute (GSI) pioneers interdisciplinary, action focussed social science & humanities research to support transformations towards sustainable and just societies.
Delivering sustainability requires an integrated view of the world. Here at the GSI, we're committed to playing a key role in developing practical solutions to the challenges facing humanity. Key to this is bringing together the information needed to make decisions, with the people capable of taking action.
Our research focuses on personal motivations and systems change set against the challenges of sustainability. Our core research question is: how does the system influence the individual, and how does the individual influence the system?
The 'system' is the political, financial, industrial and social frameworks that contribute to challenges we face and lock us into future pathways. These may be environmental challenges such as climate change, natural capital challenges such as resource limits or social challenges such as local and global inequity.
Our work is around the following key themes:
We've built a global reputation for our research, with major publications in the communication of climate science, policy, and climate finance. We have partnerships with businesses, not-for-profit organisations, the UK Government, EU Commission and United Nations as well as UK Research Council-funded projects.
Our core team of researchers works alongside visiting and honorary fellows, and staff from across ARU. We have a successful postgraduate student community and alumni network, with an MSc Sustainability, as well as PhD researchers and Professional Doctorates.
This is a glimpse of our capability; our overarching aim is to deliver sustainability solutions to some of today's global challenges.