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Sustainable Development
Solutions Network
Northern Europe
The SDSN is a unique network of problemsolvers that contribute to practical solutions for
sustainable development, through collaborative
efforts that support:
- Active dialogue and impact
- Problem-solving, solutions and financing
- Educational initiatives
- Applied research and communication
Centre for Environment and Sustainability, GMV
for more information please contact
Darko Manakovski, Program Manager SDSN NE
darko.manakovski@chalmers.se, darko.manakovski@gu.se
Katarina Gårdfeldt, Director GMV
katarina.gardfeldt@gu.se, katarina.gardfeldt@chalmers.se
www.unsdsn-ne.org
Why the SDSN and the
SDSN Northern Europe?
the sdsn: a global initiative
the sdsn northern europe
In September 2015 the United Nations will adopt
the post-2015 development agenda and launch the
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) replacing the
Millennium Development Goals that were operational
between 2000 and 2015. The 17 SDGs set a 15-year
timeframe to mobilize global sustainable development
efforts around a common set of goals and targets and
aspirations and priorities. The SDGs call for worldwide
joint action among all stakeholders, i.e. governments, the
private sector, the academic and scientific community
and civil society to ensure the sustainability of our
planet by 2030. Therefore, integrated understanding of
sustainable development as well as practical problem
solving and resource mobilization is needed.
In 2013, the SDSN communicated, via the Swedish
Secretariat for Environmental Earth System Sciences,
SSEESS, the need for an SDSN network to be convened
in Northern Europe. Consequently, the Centre for
Environment and Sustainability, GMV at Gothenburg
University and Chalmers University of Technology has
received a mandate to host the regional SDSN network
for Northern Europe, as one of ten regional networks
within the global SDSN. Preliminarily the SDSN
Northern Europe will convene members, potential
members and industry and institutional partners from
Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Iceland. By the end
of 2015, the SDSN Northern Europe welcomes all
universities in the region as members. Current members
include Chalmers, University of Gothenburg, Lund
University, Stockholm University, KTH, University of
Gävle, Copenhagen University, the Western Norway
Research Institute and ScanBalt.
The Sustainable Development Solutions Network
(SDSN) is a global initiative launched by UN SecretaryGeneral Ban Ki-moon. It is built on the idea that centres
of knowledge must take leadership in driving goal-based
change, in close collaboration with the UN, institutional
and industry partners. The SDSN mobilizes resources,
scientific and technical expertise from academia, industry,
government and civil society, in support of sustainable
development problem solving at local, national, and
global level. The network aims to accelerate joint learning
and help to overcome the compartmentalization of
technical and policy work, as it promotes integrated
approaches to economic, social, and environmental
challenges. The SDSN is operationalized via secretariats
hosted in Paris, New York and New Delhi, and mobilized
by national and regional SDSN networks; each convened
and coordinated by a national or regional secretariat.
Currently there are ten regional and eleven national
SDSN networks and 311 member universities. The
governance of the SDSN enables leaders from all
regions to participate in the running of the network
through a global Leadership Council.
Why a vision with the
university at its core?
role of higher education
vision of the sdsn northern europe
The scientific and academic community has the capacity
to appreciate the inherent complexity of the process
for implementing the Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs). The SDSN Northern Europe maintains the
universality of the SDGs and encourages a paradigm shift
where developed countries carry a big part of the global
responsibility for implementing the SDGs. Concequently,
It can “translate” and localize then SDGs to regional and
national contexts, and by initiating dynamic complex
relationships (interface) between institutional partners,
the private sector and civil society. Therefore, creating
transformative and inclusive partnerships is encouraged,
with a clear role for science and technology to shape
solutions and shared understanding of how policy
frameworks and strategies can be harmonized vis-à-vis
global goals and targets. In other words, the scientific
and academic community can strengthen the enabling
environment for integrating action on globally agreed
goals across sectors, policy domains and institutions.
Interdisciplinary research agendas can bring government,
civil society and business together to develop common
strategies and solutions, with agreed roles for all.
Our vision is to convene higher education, government,
industry and civil society to collectively set goals and
tackle challenges for sustainable development in line with
national and regional priorities and the SDGs.. The SDSN
Northern Europe facilitates in-depth multistakeholder
cooperation on integrated sustainable development
scenarios and solutions that contribute to systemic
transformation. Our aim is to enable action that creates
engagement and pragmatism, mobilizing knowledge and
facilitating implementation. Consequently, the SDSN
Northern Europe combines interdisciplinary, intersectorial and participatory approaches to inform and
influence the policy process, to strengthen the sciencepolicy interface and shape solutions. It has the ability to
generate, adopt and use knowledge, and offers a new
way of orchestrating capability and talent, to innovate,
produce solutions and services, train and educate.
The SDSN Northern Europe forms new models for
partnership by communicating best practices and being
the driving force for action. It uses innovative ways
of financing and promotes increased efficiency in a
productive environment, embracing a culture of change
and creativity. Added value comes from three objectives:
In particular, the SDSN Northern Europe can create an
enabeling environment for universities to illustrate and
further develop their individual methods, organizational
strucutures and thematic focus with respect to
contributing to solutions for sustainable development
challenges.
Drive action: through joint learning and knowledge
production, identifying new issues, a strong sciencepolicy interface and real solutions, via back-casting and
scenarios.
Shape agendas: through priorities in line with localizing
the Sustainable Development Goals; facilitating
multistakeholder participation and knowledge sharing.
Strategic dialogue and communication: through
enhanced multistakeholder communication for lessons
learned, experiences and knowledge, highlighting
interlinkages between stakeholders.
Why multistakeholder
governance?
sdsn northern europe members
& partners
In order to achieve integrated action and understanding
on sustainable development, the SDSN Northern
Europe connects stakeholders from the academic and
scientific community, industry and government. Our
members and partners are responsible leaders and play
a key role in shaping the future of their sectors.
Members: universities, knowledge centres, national and
regional networks and social entrepreneurs in the region.
Institutional partners: civil society actors, national
departments, financiers, foundations, aid and international
organizations that can contribute to the core- and
program funding.
Growth Industry Partners: sectoral industry partners
that contribute to specific program/activity funding, and
provide insight into strategic decision-making.
Strategic industry partners: industry partners that
contribute to our core funding and are a part of
the Leadership Council. They believe in the power
of multistakeholder interaction and help shape the
networks’ regional agenda.
governance of the sdsn northern europe
The SDSN Northern Europe has a governance structure
that promotes transparency, mobilizes resources,
facilitates collaboration between members and partners,
prioritizes action and ensures the effective operation of
the network. It consists of the following:
Leadership Council: includes leaders from industry,
governmental institutions and the scientific and academic
community. The mandate of the Leadership Council is
to provide intellectual stewardship, stimulate dialogue,
advance the networks’ vision and strategically source and
mobilize human and financial resources. Representatives
of the Leadership Council will be chosen through a
transparent process and prioritized congruent with
the networks’ focus. Specific members of the SDSN
Northern Europe Leadership Council are co-opted to
the Global SDSN Leadership Council, linking the regional
SDSN network to the Global SDSN.
Network Chair(s): mandated to steer the content and
operational direction withing the networks’ focus areas.
The Network Chair(s) are co-copted in the Leadership
Council.
Secretariat: led by the Network chair(s), the Secretariat
operationalizes the SDSN Northern Europe. It includes
active representatives from industry and institutional
partners, academic members, a program manger and
project management and communication staff.
What are the
action & focus areas?
sdsn northern europe action areas
focus areas for sdsn solutions initiatives
Solutions Initiatives: shape, prioritize and implement
integrated transformative solutions for sustainable
development. These can include new technologies,
business models, institutional mechanisms and policies
that accelerate sustainable development in Northern
Europe and globally.
The SDSN Northern Europe will take a systemic,
integrated approach to shaping Solutions Initiatives.
This will establish the links to create coherence and
overcome compartmentalization, allowing transformative
solutions to address priorities to achieve systemic change
and implement the SDGs. Furthermore, a systemic
perspective offers greater flexibility in organizing finance
and knowledge throughout the Northern European
region. The systemic focus areas are:
Deep Decarbonization Pathways: mobilize academia,
industry and government in a collaborative initiative for
national and regional scenarios for deep decarbonization
pathways.
Financing: develop an innovative financing facility for
sustainable development to frontload multistakeholder
funding for solutions initiatives. This includes equity,
venture and production capital, industry funding, ODA
capital or social investment.
Strategic dialogue and policy interface: strategic
engagement with national and regional decision-making
and policy implementation. Support for institutional and
political processes to localize, foster and implement the
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by providing
information, analysis and enhanced communication.
Education for sustainable development: engage in
different activities that promote joint learning and
ESD, for example implementing toolboxes that help
universities integrate sustainability in their curriculums or
promoting massive open online courses.
Conferences: host a yearly conference to showcase
successes, facilitate dialogues that shape the networks
agenda and promote joint learning, that can foster
innovative collaborative initiatives.
- Energy Systems
- Water and Ocean Systems
- Urban Systems
- Agricultural Systems
- Biodiversity Systems
- Population Systems
- Governance Systems
Solutions Initiative will be developed as a thematic group
that operates across one or more systems. Thematic
groups will engage the leading experts and resources
from academia, industry, government and civil society.
What does it mean
to be a member?
key membership practicalities
benefits for members
Becoming a member of the SDSN Northern Europe is
open to all universities and higher education institutions
and does not require any financial contribution
or fee for participation. Furthermore, all members
can take part in all action areas depending on their
interests and areas of activity. Active participation
will enable members to propose and participate in
the implementation of Solutions Initiatives, education
and training efforts, including access to online education
material, joint research, and policy work with
governments. We do also wish for all members to have
a sense of ownership and relevance for the SDSN
Northern Europe and therefore encourage members
to actively take part in the planning of the organizational
structures and action areas. There are however some
expectations to being a member:
Realism and context: Participate in localizing the
Sustainable Development Goals to regional and national
contexts via a process of joint learning and knowledge
production. Guide stakeholders to navigate complexity,
prioritize and understand the scale of sustainability
challenges and the opportunities they present.
Contact points: Members are expected to have an
active contact point for communication with the SDSN
Northern Europe Secretariat.
Education for Sustainable Development: contribute with
online education materials and use online resources.
University overview: Members are encouraged to
provide university profiles that provide an overview of
existing projects and initiatives and how each member
works for sustainable development. This will aid the
Secretariat to coordinate the action areas for the region
of Northern Europe.
Yearly conference participation: Active members
are expected to take part in the conference that the
SDSN Northern Europe will host each year, to present
academic and programmatic work on sustainable
development.
Create new or join existing Solutions Initiatives: the
SDSN will present findings from Solution Initiatives and
share lessons. In this way members can integrate lessons
from the initiatives into their own projects and research.
Pursue fundraising: mobilize additional resources
locally and internationally through the SDSN Northern
Europe multistakeholder network, new partnerships and
identified priorities and research gaps.
Applied research: gain publishing opportunities for
applied work in the Global SDSN working papers
series. Furthermore, members can take part in Thematic
Groups of regional experts and identify research gaps.
Positive brand perception: promote brand perception,
of member universities, recognized as responsible
leaders through communication and media engagement.
Strenghten research impact: implement research finding
via Solutions Initiatives and venture efforts for impact..
Communication and policy: transpose complexity and
highlight policy data, analysis and information through
enhanced communication between all stakeholders for
policy action. Strenghten the science-policy interface.
Partnerships: new multistakeholder partnerships to scale
existing- and shape new solutions and mobilize financing.
What about
deliverables & funding?
deliverables
2015
deliverables
2016
FEB
Launch event
18-19 Jan 2016
Adoptingpartners
JAN
Localize
SDGs
FFSD proposal
CoP 21
1-11 Dec
Sida
workshop
2016 - onwards
- Launch Event in January
- Yearly SDSN conference in September
- Localize the Sustainable Development Goals
- Implement two Solutions Initiatives per mandate
- Promote two education initiatives per year
- Contribute to a stronger science-policy interface
- Financing Facility for Sustainable Development
- Align the strengths, capacities and expertise of partners and members with priorities.
- Facilitate ioint learning and coordination
- Shape effective multistakeholder communication
DEC
Sustainability Atlas
proposal
funding
NOV
Adopting
members
SDG dialogues UN
20 sep - 6 okt
OCT
WBCSD adopted
as regional partner
Launch for
Webbsite
GMV as official SDSN
network1 Sep
SEP
AUG
UN Negotiation SDG
20-31 Jul
JUL
2015
The SDSN Northern Europe Secretariat recognizes the
distinct and complimentary roles played by institutional
and government funding. Core- and programmatic
funding will be mobilized through partnerships with
industry and government. Note that the minimum
requirement identified as sufficient to operationalize the
Secretariat has been reached.
Existing core funding
- 7 500 000 sek (GU and Chalmers)
New aim for core funding:
- 15 000 000 (via industry and institutional partners)