JuniorVIP spotlight on sustainable development goals

Which of the UN’s 17 sustainable development goals can AGRO – including AGRO’s juniorVIP – contribute to achieving? How can our work influence achievement of the goals? These were a couple of the questions that participants in AGRO’s juniorVIP meeting on October 5, 2018 in Foulum were asked to take a stand on. The ideas from the meeting will be part of the input to AU’s strategy process. 

By way of introduction to the juniorVIP meeting, Erik Steen Kristensen stated that our juniorVIP are an important resource for AGRO. The reason for inviting to a meeting was a desire to involve the juniorVIP even more in AGRO, and to draw on their ideas and knowledge in connection with the ongoing strategy process. 

Following a talk by Jørgen E. Olesen, KLIMA, about the 17 sustainable development goals and their inter-connectedness, the meeting turned to group work, where the participants worked with five questions that focussed on which of the goals AGRO can contribute to achieving and how we can make an impact in that regard.  

You can view Jørgen E. Olesen’s presentation here.

AGRO can contribute to many of the goals

The groups lacked neither ideas nor gumption – on the contrary. With the sustainable development goals as a jumping off point the juniorVIP could see themselves in a global perspective, and felt that research activities in AGRO can contribute to many of the goals.

Some of the sustainable development goals received more “votes” than other goals. The goals that the juniorVIP felt they could relate most to were Clean water and sanitation (goal no. 6), Industry, innovation and infrastructure (goal no. 9), Responsible consumption and production (goal no. 12) and Climate action (goal no. 13). 

However, the groups did not have to spend much time discussing before they agreed that the goals are inter-connected and that we therefore can contribute to more of them than we think. The common view was that we can contribute to all of them either directly or indirectly. This requires that we work across sections, research areas and projects even more than we do currently.

We need to make an impact

It is one thing to carry out research in those areas that can contribute to achieving the FN’s sustainable development goals. Another thing is to make an impact with the research results. The juniorVIP were quite occupied with the importance of disseminating our results over and above publishing in scientific journals. It is also important to describe a clear communication strategy when applying for EU funding. 

The first step in that direction is that the target groups – including decision-makers and those who are affected by decisions – are made aware of and understand the messages. Understanding is crucial to increasing awareness and commitment in the stakeholders. This means we must make strong efforts in the area of popular science, including articles and videos in various media. Understanding and interest can help ensure implementation of actions that can contribute to achieving the sustainable development goals on the regional, national and global levels.