New knowledge is a condition for meeting the challenges of society. Research, together with education, is Umeå University’s most important contributor to a sustainable transition of society.
At Umeå University, vast amounts of multidisciplinary and strong research is conducted in the area of sustainability and sustainable development. This includes research on future energy sources, antibiotic resistance, new forms of treatment of cancer, research on the concept of sustainability itself, how climate change affects human health, and in what way individuals can lead a more sustainable lifestyle.
Academic know-how often has the greatest impact in its interaction with society by coming to good use and creating innovations. The university is collaborating extensively with companies and organisations through both long-term partnerships and short-term projects to enable such practical use. Umeå University, through Umeå University Holding AB (web page in Swedish) including subsidiaries and incubators, supports utilisation and commercialisation of innovations.
Follow-up of the targeted goals
Action plan for climate and sustainability contains the university's strategic goals and overall activities for the period 2021-2023. The results of follow-ups for the two targeted goals within the focus area of research and utilisation, are reported here.
Goal 3: The university’s research on sustainable development must increase
An analysis made by the Swedish Foundation for International Cooperation in Research and Higher Education (STINT) shows that 59 per cent of the academic production at Umeå University between 2015 and 2019 had bearing on the 2030 Agenda and the sustainable development goals.
Goal 4: The knowledge and commitment of students and staff comes to use in the university’s environmental sustainability work
For objective 4, we have chosen the indicator "Completed collaborative projects". Here are the projects that have been completed in recent years:
The project aims to investigate how sustainability is translated in Public Municipal Housing companies and how the translation of sustainability is affected by institutional logics.