Each year we launch a report which highlights how we are addressing key issues facing humanity as set-out by the United Nations.  As the UK’s first university to have social responsibility as a core goal, we’ve developed a strategy to tackle the SDGs in four inter-related ways: through our research, learning and students, public engagement and operations.   

Our latest SDG report shows that the University published over 22,000 pieces of research on the SDGs in the past five years, which is 4% of the UK’s entire share of publications. It details teaching and learning programmes that address the SDGs, such as our ‘Creating a Sustainable World’ interdisciplinary unit. 

University of Manchester academics are working closely with Manchester City Council to tackle health inequalities.  

Making Manchester Fairer is Manchester City Council’s action plan to address health inequalities in the city. The plan draws on lived experiences and research to address the socioeconomic factors that drive inequalities between people with the worst health and people with the best health. 

The University’s Institute of Education has developed Local Matters, an initiative that empowers staff in primary and secondary schools to engage in action-based research to develop an evidence based local response to local issues.  

We work alongside and empower the school and community through a range of research skills and principles to create a localised, evidence-based response to local issues. The approach recognises that poverty is different in different places; Southampton is not the same as Bradford, so requires localised knowledge and localised answers. Essentially, it supports school staff to become place-based social justice researchers. 

Funded by the Global Challenges Research Fund, a cross-disciplinary team, including researchers from the University of Manchester, have improved Covid outcomes in Kenya’s slums. The project aimed to identify local knowledge and attitudes surrounding Covid and implement an effective public health campaign. All work on the ground was conducted by trained local field workers, in cooperation with community health volunteers, local officials and village elders, ensuring messages were communicated through trusted personnel with knowledge of the local area and language. The findings from the study highlighted that consistent and targeted health campaigns in informal settlements can facilitate compliance, engagement and understanding alongside ongoing public health campaigns. 

Deforestation is the second leading cause of climate change after fossil fuels, accounting for almost a fifth of planet-warming emissions.

Our researchers led an international and interdisciplinary team of ecologists, economists and political scientists in the largest ever study of community forestry.

Studying 18,000 community-led forest initiatives in Nepal we found that community-forest management led to a 37% relative reduction in deforestation and a 4.3% relative reduction in poverty.

Our African Cities Research Consortium (ACRC), funded by the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) as part of UK Aid, tackles complex problems in some of Africa’s fastest growing urban areas. Aimed at reducing urban poverty and inequality, our research will generate new evidence to catalyse integrated, sustainable, inclusive approaches to urban development in partnership with frontline humanitarian responders, effective policy influencers, local government networks and deeply rooted civil society groups.

Energy is one of our five research beacons and we have more than 600 academics addressing sustainable energy challenges.

Our On Energy publication is a collection of thought-leadership pieces from a selection of our staff, bringing together expert commentary, analysis and policy recommendations on issues such as climate change, fuel poverty, energy storage, and the economic viability of nuclear power and multi-energy systems.

Our academics are part of a collaboration to improve cardiovascular care in Indonesia.

The team trained local health workers (kaders) on cardiovascular disease, risk factors and the technical use of an app called SMARThealth, benefiting 48,000 people.

Our Inclusive Growth Analysis Unit was supported by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation to analyse evidence about the scale of poverty and inequality in our city region.

It has recommended a range of policies on inclusive growth so that economic prosperity benefits all citizens across Greater Manchester and beyond.

Our Global Development Institute (GDI) is Europe’s largest research and teaching institute focused on poverty and inequality. The GDI runs the Effective States and Inclusive Development (ESID) Research Centre, which investigates how politics promotes inclusive development and government accountability. Recent research suggests that countries with the highest government capacity can reduce income poverty at twice the speed of countries with the weakest capacity. Spanning 16 countries, our research is deepening the understanding of governance in developing countries, and helping to influence policy and practices and improve people’s lives