Citizen Science Pilot: Sustainable Development Goals

The Sustainable Development Goals, or Global Goals, are a collection of 17 interlinked goals designed to be a "blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all".

The University of Melbourne's 2030 strategy "Advancing Melbourne" commits us to "supporting our students beyond graduation, that our students remain part of our community after they graduate, re-engaging with their learning and with the learning of others, facilitating the University's contribution to the world and benefiting from interaction with our global diaspora. Thus, our alumni will help us build an international community united by knowledge and linked in our city, our region and the world."

In clear line of sight of this vision, we have launched this pilot, STEM led citizen science initiative.

Citizen science is scientific research conducted, in whole or in part, by amateur scientists or members of the public, and is a very important way for us to engage with our alumni community.

Sustainable Development Goals.png

Purpose

The proposed project:

  • Reaches out to a vibrant, diverse and inclusive global community of alumni and students
  • Contributes to our shared understanding of the degree to which our alumni are responding to the challenges of climate change and environmental stewardship, among other sustainability goals.
  • Will produce a rich source of information related to the breadth, depth and focus of projects related to the SDGs
  • Gives insight into the values-based interests of our diverse alumni community

Outcomes

Through this project our principal objectives are to:

  1. capture and understand the goals, directions and methodologies adopted by our alumni in sustainable development projects both personally and professionally. This insight will provide a view of how our alumni have contributed and will continue to contribute to, developing a better future world
  2. feedback from our alumni will help us to better understand their needs, so that we can design future digital support to help Melbourne graduates increase their impact on sustainability and the environment globally and locally
  3. additionally, we seek to use this information to build an online community hub. The hub will foster opportunities for engagement between alumni and next generation students.  It will provide a platform designed to attract and nurture a community of practice and ongoing interest in and commitment to the sustainability development goals.

Survey results

In total 178 individuals completed the survey, 26% of participants said that their project was located in Victoria, 25% indicated Melbourne and 49% said that their project was located interstate or overseas. We were pleased to see our alum working on projects all over the world, inlcuding: Bangladesh, Ecuador, India, United Kingdom, Myanmar and Mexico.

Participants stated that they spent a maximum of 220,000 hours on their SDG project, with an overall average of 4,700 hours.

The top six Sustainable Development Goal(s) addressed by the projects being undertaken were: Climate Action, Sustainable Cities and Communities, Life on Land, Responsible Consumption and Production, Good Health and Wellbeing and Affordable and Clean Energy. Noting that participants could select up to three options.

Future Plans

  • publishing a dedicated website on the project
  • publishing a preliminary case study around our findings
  • creating and distributing profiles of submitted projects
  • identifying digital support (resources and training) to help graduates increase their impact on sustainability and the environment globally and locally.

I am delighted as an alumnus of the University of Melbourne to endorse this pilot STEM led citizen science initiative designed to engage the University with its global alumni community around the challenges and opportunities of climate change and sustainability and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) established by the UN.

As a member of the  High Level Inter-Governmental and Stakeholder Advisory Group for UNEP’s sixth Global Environment Outlook (GEO6) and Chair of the Knightsbridge Neighbourhood Forum, which produced the first neighbourhood plan in Central London, I am deeply committed to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals and our trajectory toward ‘zero air emissions’ solutions.

- Simon Birkett graduated with first class honours in Civil Engineering from the University of Melbourne in 1981 and spent 24 years in the financial services sector after obtaining an MSc from the London Business School and a short career in the mining sector in Australia.

Snapshot of activities aligned to SDG

More Information

If you have any questions, or would like to know more about the project, please contact science-alumni@unimelb.edu.au.