United Nations SDGs added to UCL Profiles database of expertise

Users of Profiles can now search for UCL expertise relating to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), helping to facilitate external partnerships and internal cross-disciplinary collaboration.

The 17 SDGs are the core of the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Adopted by all UN Member States in 2015, they provide a framework for the world’s ongoing economic growth, while protecting the environment and addressing societal inequalities. The UN aims to achieve the Goals by 2030.

The Goals range from ‘Decent Work & Economic Growth’ and ‘Good Health & Well-being’ to ‘Climate Action’ and ‘Industry, Innovation & Infrastructure’. The breadth of the framework means they are relevant to all UCL’s disciplines, from English literature and engineering to brain sciences and geography. 

““The breadth of the SDGs means that many of our researchers are addressing one or more of the more specific targets that sit under each of the Goals,” explained Simon Knowles, UCL’s Head of Coordination (SDGs). “For example, within SDG3 (Good Health & Wellbeing) there are specific targets on communicable and non-communicable diseases, smoking cessation, infant mortality and universal health coverage.”

Simon leads the UCL SDGs Initiative, which was established in 2020–21 to maximise the impact of the university’s activities on the Goals, including through: our world-class research and teaching; the ways UCL engages with local, national and global communities; the extra- and co-curricular activities of our students; and the way we operate as an institution.

UCL Profiles showcases UCL’s expertise externally, so the SDG filter will provide another way for users to identify relevant UCL expertise.

““The SDGs are increasingly being used across sectors and around the world, as they offer a ‘common currency’ for establishing partnerships, both with external partners and for facilitating cross-disciplinary collaboration within UCL,” Simon said. 

UCL Profiles was launched in September 2023, superseding IRIS. There are now 19,000 members of UCL’s community on Profiles, more than 8,000 of whom have been assigned one or more SDG.

““SDGs have been assigned to individuals based on their publications in UCL’s Research Publications Service (RPS) – the same methodology we used to assign fields of research to individuals in the initial roll-out of Profiles,” explained Andrew Gray, (UCL Library, Culture, Collections & Open Science). “Individuals are assigned an SDG if more than 10% of their published papers are mapped to an SDG by the InCites database.”

Following the initial import of data on fields of research and SDGs, individuals are responsible for updating their record to ensure it remains up to date and accurate. Simon advised individuals to consult the Targets within each Goal to judge whether their expertise addresses that SDG. The Profiles support pages explain how to use RPS to populate key fields in your public profile, including adding SDG labels.

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