SEAL Launches at the Beyond Boundaries Conference October 2020

SEAL Launches at Beyond Boundaries: Realising the UN Sustainable Development Goals virtual conference.

The Beyond Boundaries virtual conference was a two week online event focusing on why and how Universities should address the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Drawing upon the UCL Grand Challenges initiative, discussion was aimed at understanding how Universities approach the SDGs and how we can move forward to develop cross disciplinary and beyond boundary research and activities with our partners.

The Sustainability and the Water Cycle session looked at how the water elements of SDGs 13 (Climate Action), 14 (Life Below Water) and 15 (Life on Land) are being delivered and whether the targets linked to water are sufficiently comprehensive. Discussions explore key trade-offs and links between the water needs of people, food production, the economy and the environment and ask how we can develop a future knowledge and innovation agenda that could help speed up the delivery of relevant SDGs.

Co-chaired by SEAL’s chair Dr Luiza Campos, Associate Professor, Department of Civil, Environmental & Geomatic Engineering, UCL and deputy chair Professor Dan Osborn, Professor of Human Ecology, UCL this session brings together leading experts in this field. Including: Professor Taikan Oki, Special Advisor to the President and Professor at Graduate School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo and Senior Vice-Rector, United Nations University; Professor Melanie Austen, Professor of Ocean and Society, University of Plymouth; Professor Michael E. McClain, Chair Professor of Ecohydrology, IHE Delft and Dr Michel Tsamados, Lecturer in Polar Observation & Modelling/Rheology, UCL

Watch the session and launch online here.