SDG Accelerator RESEARCH

The SDG Accelerator undertakes and facilitates scientific research which is challenge-driven and transdisciplinary, in partnership with the public sector and industry.

UCL SDGs Research Accelerator Research

Photo: UX Indonesia / Unsplash

At UCL, research relevant to the UN SDGs is conducted across many different disciplines and areas, reflective of the university’s broad spectrum of expertise. This includes technical and engineering solutions to urban sustainability challenges, political and institutional change acceleration, and societal advancement within planetary boundaries while ensuring no-one is left behind.

The SDG Research Accelerator carries out or facilitates research with a particular focus on SDG 3 (health), SDG11 (cities), SDG 13 (climate) and/or SDG17 (partnerships), as well as research overviews of SDG-related challenges in cities. This is supported by funding from UCL, research councils and other funding bodies and private foundations.

Current and past research projects:  

The Climate and Health Metrics of Green Adaptation in Islington (CRAFTIslington) is an one-year  UCL Public Public Policy's Rapid Response Policy Advisory Scheme (EPSRC and AHRC IAA) project (2024-2025) that aims to develop urgent solutions to policy demand. It works closely with the London Borough of islington’s Pocket Park Framework (PPF) to: 

  • Map climate and health co-benefits of PPF - by developing a benefits matrix of green infrastructure adaptation  
  • Propose a monitoring framework of green infrastructure adaptation - by drawing on SDG and ESG targets  
  • Investigate potential for scaling-out and scaling-up - by assessing synergies and tensions with other climate policies at the borough and GLA level.  

Visit the website.

The Policy and Implementation for Climate & Health Equity (PAICE) is a two-year Wellcome Trust funded project (2023-2025) that works closely with the UK’s Climate Chance Committee, in order to inform and evaluate UK Net Zero policies using transdisciplinary approaches to generate and implement evidence.

The Complex Urban Systems for Sustainability and Health (CUSSH) is a five-year Wellcome Trust funded project (2018-2024) that delivers key global research on the systems that connect urban development and population health. It undertakes resaerch across six cities –  London (UK), Rennes (France), Kisumu and Nairobi (Kenya), and Beijing and Ningbo (China) – and focuses both on local priorities and city-scale actions aligned with planetary health.

Visit the website.

The Food for Urban Lives and Localities (FULL) is a two-year FORMAS Swedish Research Council project (2020-2022) which looks at the social and governance implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on the urban food system across five cities: London (UK), Stockholm (Sweden), Sydney (Australia), Whuan (China) and Seoul (South Korea).

Visit the website. 

The SDG Accelerator builds on the work of the UCL Cities Partnerships Programme (Stockholm), including its partnership with the Stockolm Trio made of Karolinska Institute, KTH Royal Institute of Technology and Stockholm University. 

The Partnership run between 2020 and 2023 and funded research collaborations between researchers in London and Stockholm, which span a range of research areas, with many led by early career researchers.

Awarded projects 2022/23

Widening Research and Policy Capacity on Housing Segregation and Transport Inequalities in Stockholm and London

Co-funded by UCL, KTH Royal Institute of Technology and University of Stockholm
Prof Laura Vaugan (UCL), Prof Ann Legeby (KTH Royal Institute of Technology), Dr Tanja Joelsson (Stockholm University), Dr Jonathan Rock Rokem (University of Kent)

The prevalence and patterns of moped and e-scooter enabled crime

Co-funded by UCL, KTH Royal Institute of Technology
Prof Spencer Chainey (UCL) and Prof Vania Ceccato (KTH Royal Institute of Technology)

Awarded projects 2021/22

A joint programme on ageing, work, and the life after COVID

Dr Baowen Xue (UCL) and Hui-Xin Wang (Stockholm University)

Developing the statistical tools for dark matter discovery in the current and next generation of rare event search experiments    

Prof Chamkaur Ghag (UCL), Jan Conrad, Vasile Cristian Antochi and Pueh Leng Tan (Stockholm University)

Soundscape Attributes Translation Project (SATP): towards standardized assessments of urban sound environments across languages, countries, and cultures    

Co-funded by UCL and Stockholm University
Dr. Francesco Aletta (UCL), Prof Mats E. Nilsson (Stockholm University), Prof Maria Larsson (Stockholm University) and Dr Östen Axelsson (Stockholm University)

Sharing Experience of Interdisciplinary Curriculum Reform in Engineering Education    

Prof John Mitchell (UCL) and Prof Arnold Pears (KTH Royal Institute of Technology)

Ecology and evolution of European oral microbes over the past three centuries  

Co-funded by UCL and Karolinska Institutet
Dr Lucy van Dorp (UCL) and Ville Pimenoff (Karolinska Institutet)

Resignation Syndrome: towards a new understanding    

Co-funded by UCL and Karolinska Institutet
Dr Michael Moutoussis (UCL), Predrag Petrovic (Karolinska Institutet) and Karl Sallin (Uppsala University and Karolinska University Hospital)

Health Economic Evaluation: training and knowledge sharing of new methods and software    

Co-funded by UCL and Karolinska Institutet
Dr Nathan Green (UCL), Dr Michael Crowther (Karolinska Institutet) and Prof. Paul Dickman (Karolinska Institutet)

Enhanced efficiencies of hybrid vehicles for improved city air quality

Co-funded by UCL and KTH Royal Institute of Technology
Prof Panagiota Angeli (UCL),  Prof Outi Tammisola (KTH Royal Institute of Technology) and Prof Luca Brandt (KTH Royal Institute of Technology)

Coordinated decision making policies for accelerating decarbonisation of urban energy systems under uncertainty    

Dr Sebastian Maier (UCL) and Prof Afzal Siddiqui (Stockholm University)

PUDEME: Pre-urban demography in early medieval Europe (London and Stockholm)    

Co-funded by UCL and Stockholm University
Dr Stuart Brookes (UCL), Dr Cecilia Ljung (Stockholm University), Dr Johan Runer (Uppdrag Arkeologi), Prof Anders Andrén (Stockholm University), Dr Alison Klevnäs (Stockholm University) and Lena Beronius-Jörpeland (National Historical Museums)

Developing Data-driven analytic and modeling approaches for Mass Transport in Cities through Student and Practitioner Networks    

Dr Taku Fujiyama (UCL), Dr Carl-William Palmqvist (KTH Royal Institute of Technology) and Dr Zhenliang Ma (KTH Royal Institute of Technology)

SELCS Turing Summer School in Madrid, Paris, Rome and Stockholm    

Dr Thibaut Maus de Rolley (UCL) and Anna Rudels (Swedish Institute)

Awarded projects 2020/21

Focus on Open Science Workshops, delivering Open Science policy, practice and solutions

Dr Paul Ayris (UCL) and Wilhelm Widmark (Stockhom University)

UCL-Stockholm training programme in population mental health and pathways to policy impact

Co-funded by UCL and Stockholm Region
Dr James Kirkbride (UCL), Prof Christina Dalman (Karolinska Institutet) and Dr Anna-Clara Hollander (Karolinska Institutet)

How are sign languages learned as second languages?

Prof Chloe Marshall (UCL), Prof Johanna Mesch (Stockholm University), Dr Krister Schönström (Stockholm University) and Dr Ingela Holmström (Stockholm University)

Integrated sensing and communications for perceptive smart cities

Prof Christos Masouros (UCL) Jose Mairton Barros da Silva Jr. (KTH Royal Institute of Technology) and Carlo Fischione (KTH Royal Institute of Technology)

Net zero affordable housing – an institutional comparison between Sweden and the UK

Dr Stanimira Milcheva (UCL) and  Bertram Steininger (KTH Royal Institute of Technology)

Metabolic reprogramming of B-cell functions in immune-mediated pathology

Dr Kristine Oleinika (UCL) and Prof Mikael Karlsson (Karolinska Institute)

Could moral philosophy explain inconsistent findings in eco-psychology?

Dr Dimitrios Tsivrikos (UCL) and Prof Gunnar Björnsson (Stockholm University)

Contact us 

Professor Catalina Turcu
Founder & Director of the SDG Research Accelerator, Professor of Sustainable Built Environment 
catalina.turcu@ucl.ac.uk

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