Ocean Sustainability Bergen: Bringing SDG 14 to the forefront of higher education
In this side event we look at how the virtual centre Ocean Sustainability Bergen is working with partners around the world to reshape higher education in ocean sciences for the future and in accordance with SDG14, Life below water.
Main content
The University of Bergen has established a virtual centre, Ocean Sustainability Bergen (OSB), to promote knowledge and understanding of a sustainable ocean. With this centre, UiB aims to make education, research, and science diplomacy a key part of Norway’s contribution towards a sustainable ocean, as part of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Since its inception, OSB has helped to enhance and share academic research on the laws of the ocean, food from the ocean, and sustainable technology. OSB also functions as a platform through which the University of Bergen fulfils its role as the Hub for Sustainable Development Goal 14 (SDG14): Life Below Water, as appointed by the United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI). The University of Bergen is also the SDG14 lead university with the International Association of Universities (IAU) global Higher Education and Research for Sustainable Development (HESD) Cluster.
Through its partnerships with other university members of the IAU global HESD Cluster, OSB collaborates on various information sharing and knowledge building initiatives, including publications of shared research activities, webinars, and workshops. This session at the 2021 SANORD Conference aims to highlight a selection of these activities and showcase how OSB and the IAU global HESD Cluster are shaping the global SDG curriculum throughout the higher education sector at specific universities around the world.
The session will be organized with short presentations and an interactive discussion period where session attendees can direct questions to the speakers.
PROGRAMME
Opening by moderator Katja Enberg and introductions (5 min)
Keynote opening Lise Øvreås: Context-setting, OSB, Introducing the topic of higher education fostering transformative partnerships (5-10 min)
Speaker 1 Hilligje van’t Land: How IAU and the IAU HESD Cluster are encouraging leadership for SD and taking a whole-institution approach (10 min)
Speaker 2 Stacy Kennedy: Global Partnerships for SDGs – University of the West Indies perspective (10 min)
Speaker 3 Martin Visbeck: Transdisciplinary partnerships and GEOMAR Kiel research cooperation on SDG14 and higher education (10 min)
Speaker 4 Isabelle Ansorge: Partnerships for SDG 14 research in higher education – University of Cape Town perspective (10 min)
Speaker 5 Ashneel Chandra: University of the South Pacific and University of Bergen: Experiences with the SDG14 and SDG13 Cluster network and research cooperation from a student perspective (10 min)
Discussion guided by moderator, Q&A (all, approx. 20 min)
Closing words from moderator, Lise Øvreås, and Hilligje van't Land (5 min)
Videos (30 min)
