University of Bristol has awarded £28k of strategic research funding to the Cabot Institute and Bristol Green Capital Partnership to develop the Bristol SDG Alliance.

The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a transformative global agenda guiding the efforts of governments, businesses and civil society actors seeking to end poverty and promote sustainable prosperity for all. However, translating the ambitious Goals into concrete action is challenging. This is particularly true for cities, which are increasingly viewed as critical arenas for tackling global challenges.

The Bristol SDG Alliance with bring together a range of stakeholders to collaborate in ‘localising’ the SDGs for Bristol— using the global framework to inform local actions and efforts to monitor progress towards sustainable urban living.

The funding will be used to create a new 9-month engagement and research post to help develop an action and engagement plan for the Bristol SDG Alliance and produce several high-impact outputs, including a contribution to the UN High Level Political Forum on the SDGs in July 2018 – which will focus on SDGs, cities and resilience – and a new chapter of the Bristol Method on localising the SDGs to Bristol, among much else. Our hope is for the role to be in place as soon as possible, once HR matters have been addressed, so watch this space. The intention is to hold a stakeholder-focused workshop by the end of 2017, potentially w/c 11 Dec, to develop the plan, followed by larger public-facing workshops in 2018.

We are now advertising the 0.6FTE Research Associate role, closing date: 23 November. More information and the application form can be found on the University of Bristol website.