2017•04•14 Tokyo
At the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit held at the United Nations Headquarters in New York in September 2015, more than 150 world leaders adopted “Transforming Our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”. This agenda declared an action plan to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity. It named the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), consisting of 17 universal goals and 169 targets.
UNU-IAS invites applications for the Grant for Global Sustainability (GGS), an initiative supporting research related to implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Educational and research institutions based in Japan are eligible to apply for the 3-year grants.
Proposals must focus on one of the following three themes.
Under the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, it will be crucial to accelerate efforts to improve education and governance to realize inclusive development, through which all people participate in and benefit from social and economic development. Therefore, proposals under this research theme must address education and governance towards realizing a more fair development. Keywords related to the theme: development of the educational system, human/social/economic development, good governance, and peace building.
Unsustainable use of Earth’s natural capital is leading to the Earth’s weakened life support system. Changes in the natural environment are causing disasters, resulting in increased poverty and the vulnerability of humans and society. Human and social development, including related to food, water and energy, continue to be prioritized under the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development; and conservation of the Earth’s systems is the foundation. Therefore, proposals under research theme 2 must develop solutions to the challenges to sustainable development faced by the Earth. Keywords related to the theme: natural capital, biodiversity, climate change, global change, and sensing and monitoring technology.
Currently, about 60% of the world’s population lives in cities, and by 2050 the urban population will double, accounting for 80% of the world’s total population. In many developing countries, urbanization is progressing at a pace that exceeds social infrastructure development; and as a result, the less well-off and inflow workers are often forced to live in a poor living environment. The “New Urban Agenda” developed by the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) in September 2016 requires improving the inclusiveness of cities and residential areas, safety, resilience, and sustainability through the social implementation of SDGs. Therefore, proposals under this research theme must address the sustainable development of human living through prevention of deterioration of human living in the urbanized world, ameliorating conditions to improve the living environment of all people. Keywords related to the theme: human settlement, urban environment, safety, innovation and employment, infrastructure, production and consumption, and health.
This project supports initiatives from Japan that will contribute to the promotion of the SDGs, with their focus on practical, sustainable, and developmental solutions, collecting wisdom from a wide range of stakeholders including Japanese universities, research institutes, and companies while taking advantage of collaboration with the United Nations University and UN agencies to address the global issues faced by developing countries.
Interested research institutions should submit a concept paper. Multiple proposals from the same research institution will be accepted, although only one proposal from the same research institution can be accepted over the three themes.
There will be two phases for the selection process: a concept paper review and a project proposal review (including document examination and interview).
Applications must be submitted in Japanese. For more information, including on the application process, please visit the Japanese UNU-IAS website.