The Alliance of Sustainable Universities in Austria has developed a joint project entitled ‘UniNEtZ - Universities and Sustainable Development Goals’, in which Austrian Universities take mentorships for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of Agenda 2030.

RCE Graz-Styria (with its new head Anke Strüver, based at the University of Graz) and the Technical University of Graz are responsible for the mentorship of SDG 11: ‘Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable’. The RCE team is expanding the existing key areas of work, especially with regard to inclusive and sustainable urbanisation, participatory planning, green public spaces and with special attention to the needs of people in vulnerable situations.

The partner institutions involved take over so-called sponsorships and participations for the SDGs. A sponsorship means that the institution coordinates and collects all knowledge and activities for the respective SDG throughout Austria. Participation describes the collaboration on the content of a specific SDG. Through this intensive cooperation and professional debate with the SDGs, all contributions are collected, critically examined and coordinated in order to work on the development of an options paper for the period 2019-2021, which should support the Federal Government in the implementation of the sustainability goals. The paper to be drawn up is not a recommendation for action, but is intended to identify and evaluate options (future-oriented solutions with their respective consequences).

The project also focuses on networking between the universities and anchoring the SDGs in research and teaching. Key prerequisites for successful contributions to the implementation of the SDGs are: comprehensive systemic approaches, a continuous Science-Society-Policy Dialogue as well as collaborative international and national, cross-university cooperation.

For more information (in German) visit: https://www.uninetz.at