After three years of extensive discussions and careful planning, the University Board decided on 18 September to establish the University of Oslo's new Centre for Global Sustainability. The Unit for Sustainable Health (SUSTAINIT) will, through its employees, be one of the permanent environments associated with the centre. In addition to SUSTAINIT, the Centre for Development and the Environment (SUM) and the three strategic initiatives (UiO: Life Sciences, UiO: Democracy and UiO: Energy) will also be part of the centre. All in a slightly different way.
At SUSTAINIT, we look forward to contributing with our work in sustainable health in this new and dynamic arena for interdisciplinary research, education and knowledge exchange, says Eivind Engebretsen (Head of SUSTAINIT).
What is the Centre for Global Sustainability?
The new centre is located directly under the University Board and will have a flexible organisation to make room for both permanent and temporary academic environments and various forms of affiliation.
According to the proposal to the University Board, the centre has the following objectives:
- strengthen interdisciplinary research on sustainability at a high international level.
- strengthen education and lifelong learning about global sustainability across disciplines.
- create an attractive arena for knowledge sharing and dissemination in global sustainability.
- develop inclusive collaboration forums for students, researchers and external partners.
- increase access to external funding for research and education.
- contribute with a flexible structure and organisation that provides space for both permanent and temporary research environments, in line with the centre's purpose.
The academic organisation is based on flexible thematic areas, which will be developed by the academic communities that will be part of the centre. The Centre for Global Sustainability will enter into force and the centre director is expected to take office before the summer of 2025. In the long term, the environments that are part of the Centre will be co-located in the Sustainability House – the name of the current pharmacy building at Blindern. A temporary steering group has been appointed with responsibility for leading the development of thematic areas and organisation until the centre director is appointed.
What will SUSTAINIT's role be?
While SUM and the three strategic initiatives will be in line with the Centre's leader, SUSTAINIT will have a different connection. SUSTAINIT and its subordinate units exist as an autonomous unit at the Institute of Health and Society (HELSAM) and the Faculty of Medicine.
The employees of SUSTAINIT will collaborate in the thematic areas at the Centre, but keep the appointment and reporting lines at their own faculty. Once the Sustainability House is available, the employees of SUSTAINIT will move into the new building and be co-located with the other environments in the Centre for Global Sustainability.
We hope and believe that the Centre for Global Sustainability will become an innovative meeting place for research, knowledge sharing and collaboration with external partners where SUSTAINIT can further develop its project portfolio and contribute to the realization of its vision of promoting critical thinking and interdisciplinary models for sustainable health research and education.
Why do we need a global sustainability centre?
Interdisciplinary knowledge is the key to the climate crisis. Knowledge about the livelihoods of humans and other species must be seen in the context of each other - and with the cultural and institutional framework conditions that such restructuring requires. This requires a global perspective: Sustainable transition is fundamentally about a shift away from overconsumption in high-income countries and overproduction through global value chains that exploit people in poor countries, destroy the environment, and undermine economic and governance conditions for well-functioning societies globally.
The climate crisis is not distributed fairly. In 2023, the Earth experienced the warmest three-month period ever recorded, and the potential health consequences are particularly great for people in low-income countries.
In addition to an increased risk of malnutrition, climate change is leading to an increase in food-borne, water-borne and vector-borne diseases. According to GAVI, up to 8.4 billion people could be exposed to diseases such as dengue fever and malaria by the end of the century, if emissions continue to increase at current levels. From a health perspective, sustainable transition is therefore closely linked to global health and pandemic preparedness, which are SUSTAINIT's primary focus areas.
With the new Centre, SUSTAINIT will have the opportunity to address these challenges in collaboration with experts on other aspects of the transition, such as biodiversity, democracy, culture and governance institutions. The new centre will also be uniquely located for cross-sectoral collaboration, so that knowledge development takes place in interaction with the various actors who will be involved in implementing the transition.
- This text/interview is part of MED-nytt, no 19 – 2024.
