Page 13 - University of Pretoria Research Review 2017
P. 13
Foreword
Introductory Messages
DEVELOPMENT AND CHANGE
Context
PEOPLE AND CONTEXTS
HEALTH AND WELL-BEING
PLANET AND SUSTAINABILITY
Awards
Lead Researchers
11
In an interconnected world, it has become possible for countries, regions and institutions to work towards the same set of goals. This is why the SDGs – despite criticism – can become the catalysts for substantive change, through a shared vocabulary and the sustained actions required to address complex development challenges.
What role should universities, especially in the developing world, play in realising this integrated, moral and collaborative agenda?
Two challenges stand out: firstly, the dissemination of high-quality research should be improved. This means that more resources should be invested in creating ‘meta-platforms’ that collect, synthesise and disseminate research in accessible formats to decision-
makers in the public and private sectors. The research on evidence-informed
policymaking is unambiguous on the importance of concerted and well-resourced
initiatives in this regard.
Secondly, as both the International Council for Science (ICSU) and the Sustainable Development Solutions Network’s Australia-Pacific network have indicated, scientists need to experiment to a greater extent with multidisciplinary research. This flows from the realisation, as expressed by the SDGs, that the global community has moved beyond an overly simplistic understanding of ‘development’ and the requisite responses to its underlying causes. Realising the 2030 Agenda’s SDGs indeed require both high-quality discipline-specific and innovative multidisciplinary research.
UP Experimental Farm, with the Future Africa campus in the foreground.