{"id":660,"date":"2023-11-03T16:06:52","date_gmt":"2023-11-03T16:06:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/?p=660"},"modified":"2025-04-08T10:34:42","modified_gmt":"2025-04-08T09:34:42","slug":"pgrs-explore-how-sustainability-relates-to-research-and-professional-development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/2023\/11\/03\/pgrs-explore-how-sustainability-relates-to-research-and-professional-development\/","title":{"rendered":"PGRs explore how sustainability relates to research and professional development"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-media-text alignwide has-media-on-the-right is-stacked-on-mobile\" style=\"grid-template-columns:auto 19%\"><figure class=\"wp-block-media-text__media\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"298\" height=\"298\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/files\/2023\/11\/Picture3.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-662 size-full\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/files\/2023\/11\/Picture3.jpg 298w, https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/files\/2023\/11\/Picture3-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 298px) 100vw, 298px\" \/><\/figure><div class=\"wp-block-media-text__content\">\n<p> SustainaWHAT?! is a multi-disciplinary, cross-faculty and now cross-institutional collaborative project which encourages PGRs to explore the relationship between the <a href=\"https:\/\/sdgs.un.org\/goals\">United Nations Sustainable Development Goals<\/a> and their research, with a focus on their professional and personal development. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Building on the success of the <a href=\"https:\/\/microsites.ncl.ac.uk\/casestudies\/2022\/08\/04\/the-sustainawhat-gatherings-embedding-education-for-sustainable-development-in-pgr-education-and-researcher-development\/\">2021 event<\/a>, in Spring 2023, PGRs from three institutions (Newcastle, Bournemouth and Cardiff) worked with academic leads to create SustainaWHAT?! 2023 \u2013 a series of four events which aimed to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>provide an opportunity to bring a sustainability lens (via the UNSDGs) to their prospective research with a view to informing the rationale and potential impact of their current and future research;<\/li><li>develop a range of competencies applicable to their contexts;<\/li><li>develop a network of PGRs (+PGTs and ECRs) interested in sustainability within and across the three institutions.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-media-text alignwide is-stacked-on-mobile\"><figure class=\"wp-block-media-text__media\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"783\" height=\"398\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/files\/2023\/11\/Picture1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-663 size-full\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/files\/2023\/11\/Picture1.jpg 783w, https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/files\/2023\/11\/Picture1-300x152.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/files\/2023\/11\/Picture1-768x390.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 783px) 100vw, 783px\" \/><\/figure><div class=\"wp-block-media-text__content\">\n<p><strong>\u2018The Gathering\u2019<\/strong>&nbsp;(March) was an introductory workshop which saw over 60 students (predominantly PGRs, with some ECR, PGT and UG students) exploring the UNSDGs in relation to their own lives and&nbsp;research through a range of activities.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>At Newcastle, this event gave 26 postgraduate students from HaSS, FMS, and SAgE faculties a vital opportunity to collaborate across schools and research interests. This hybrid, part in-person, part over zoom, event between Newcastle University, Bournemouth University, and Cardiff University provided a space for whole university thinking on how research can be related to the UNSDGs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A powerful keynote speech was given by sustainable development expert and Insights North East Fellow <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/jecel-censoro\/?originalSubdomain=uk\">Jecel Censoro<\/a>, and discussion panel members <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncl.ac.uk\/nes\/people\/profile\/elisalopez-capel.html\">Dr Elisa Lopez-Capel<\/a> (SAgE), <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncl.ac.uk\/business\/people\/profile\/jennydavidson.html\">Dr Jenny Davidson<\/a> (HaSS\/ School X) and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncl.ac.uk\/medicine\/people\/profile\/jandeckers.html\">Mx Jan Deckers<\/a> (FMS) answered attendee questions on sustainability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This opportunity to work across schools was deem important by attendees, with one Newcastle PGR stating after the event, \u2018<em>The climate crisis requires interdisciplinary solutions and collaboration<\/em>\u2019. Of the 52 survey responses (from all three institutions), 95% of students reported that they are rarely or never given the opportunity to work across disciplines on sustainability projects, so we believe this Sustaina-WHAT?! work fills a vital niche.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>SustainaWHAT?!\u2019s work draws on UNESCO\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.qaa.ac.uk\/docs\/qaa\/guidance\/education-for-sustainable-development-guidance-executive-summary.pdf?sfvrsn=b121d281_8\">Learning Competencies for Education for Sustainable Development<\/a>, including overarching ways of <em>thinking<\/em> (e.g. critical thinking), of <em>practicing<\/em> (e.g. collaboration), and of <em>being<\/em> (e.g. reflection), when planning events. As demonstrated by attendee responses below, our work continues to be successful in developing attendee ESD competencies which prepare and support student work not only in their research projects but also their ongoing professional development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Critical Thinking:<\/strong> Through the individual and group activities during the March event the percentage of students who stated they were able to link the SDGs to their research increased from 43% before the event to 76% after the event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Collaboration<\/strong>: Cooperation between students with disparate research interests during a group activity led attendees to make clearer links between each other\u2019s work through the SDGs, with students commenting that <em>\u2018SDGs are interconnected\u2019<\/em> and<em> \u2018I became more aware of SDGs in my domain of research\u2019.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Reflection:<\/strong> After being invited to review their existing awareness of sustainability during the March event, 84% of students leaving the event reported they intended to explore sustainability as part of their future career, and 82% stating that they planned to adopt sustainable actions in their daily lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>What did the students across the three institutions learn?<\/em> When asked what their biggest take away from the March event was, the students commented:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><em>\u2018More exposure on SDGs and their relation to communities, societies, and countries.\u2019 <\/em>(Bournemouth)<\/li><li><em>\u2018Connection and motivation.\u2019<\/em> (Cardiff)<\/li><li><em>\u2018Develop potential connections between sustainable development and my research.\u2019<\/em> (Newcastle)<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>In <strong>&#8216;The Challenge\u2019<\/strong>&nbsp;(April), three multi-disciplinary and cross-institutional PGR teams worked&nbsp;closely online and under time constraints over two events to explore and respond to&nbsp;country-based briefs, drawing on the UNSDGs.&nbsp;\u200bEach team (supported by a PGR facilitator) produced a proposal which was judged by a panel of academics from 3 institutions and&nbsp;an external NGO. In addition to prizes being awarded for 1<sup>st<\/sup>-3<sup>rd<\/sup> place, teams received individualised feedback on their proposal strengths \u200band developmental suggestions. First prize was awarded for a proposal on <em>\u201cImproving Sustainability Through UK Manufacturing Law\u201d<\/em>, which was developed and presented by Callum Thompson (PGR in Engineering, Cardiff)&nbsp;and Tushar Somkumar (PGR in Law, Newcastle). Their work illustrated the value of creating opportunities for students to come together from different disciplines and institutions to work effectively to respond to global challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-media-text alignwide has-media-on-the-right is-stacked-on-mobile\" style=\"grid-template-columns:auto 54%\"><figure class=\"wp-block-media-text__media\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"794\" height=\"447\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/files\/2023\/11\/Picture2.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-664 size-full\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/files\/2023\/11\/Picture2.png 794w, https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/files\/2023\/11\/Picture2-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/files\/2023\/11\/Picture2-768x432.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 794px) 100vw, 794px\" \/><\/figure><div class=\"wp-block-media-text__content\">\n<p>Finally, there was an online event, <strong><strong>\u2018The Celebration\u2019<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/strong>(May) to announce \u2018The Challenge\u2019 winners, and to celebrate the achievements of all involved \u2013 the project team and student attendees.&nbsp; <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>The initial findings from the project\u2019s evaluation work were also shared. Understanding the student attendee experience of the project and the impact on people\u2019s learning and views on sustainability have been a core element of the work undertaken by a dedicated evaluation team. We\u2019ve not only been interested in attendee experiences, but the team have been keen to observe and explore the cross-disciplinary and institutional project team (some self-reflection was required too) in terms of what working practices are needed for successful collaborative working across disciplines and institutions. The team are now working on finalising an evaluation report to share across our institution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Moving forward \u2013 get involved!<\/strong> Colleagues from Bournemouth, Newcastle and Cardiff are scoping out a student-led sector-wide sustainability network which brings together Early Career Researchers (ECRs) and Postgraduate Research Students (PGRs) who are working on bringing sustainability into their research. The network seeks to connect its members across institutions and facilitate cross-disciplinary interactions and collaborations. To find out more\/ get involved contact: <a href=\"mailto:rosalind.beaumont@newcastle.ac.uk\">rosalind.beaumont@newcastle.ac.uk<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Co-authored by Charlie Osborne (PGR, SNES) and Rosalind Beaumont (Senior Lecturer, School X)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SustainaWHAT?! is a multi-disciplinary, cross-faculty and now cross-institutional collaborative project which encourages PGRs to explore the relationship between the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and their research, with a focus on their professional and personal development. Building on the success of the 2021 event, in Spring 2023, PGRs from three institutions (Newcastle, Bournemouth and Cardiff) [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11257,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[151,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-blogs","category-research-education"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11257"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=660"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":669,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660\/revisions\/669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}