Benchmarking sustainability research: A methodology for reviewing sustainable development research in universities

Abstract

The need for high quality research to impact sustainability policy and action has been identified in international frameworks for environmental sustainability in higher education from 1977 to 1990 (Wright in Int J Sustain Higher Educ 3:203–220, 2002), and repeated by the UK Research Councils (Research Council UK in Research Council UK Submission to House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee Inquiry into Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), 2014). With the emergence of indicators on measuring research for sustainable development in universities (AULSF in Sustainability Assessment Questionnaire, 2009), the research study which forms the focus of this paper, is a first attempt to establish a practical methodology to provide such data. The aim of this study was to investigate the extent to which sustainable development research was already being carried out across a large university, and whether it was possible to devise a relatively quick and reliable methodology to identify the scope and areas of research being undertaken, which would provide the university with a baseline of existing sustainable development research. The object was to capture and report the existing contributions to sustainable development research and to make an initial assessment of its current impact and contribution towards research excellence at the university. The work of 465 staff was analysed using content and thematic analysis to identify those relating to sustainable development, broadly defined as ‘economic, social, environmental, community, wellbeing, global and future equity’. The analysis identified both researchers interested in sustainable development research issues, and those currently researching sustainable development. The research also identified the degree to which published research showed evidence of a set of key external viability factors identified as: ‘sustainability content’, ‘research impact’, and ‘knowledge transfer viability’. The methodology is intended to be replicable at other times and in other universities. It promises to raise the profile of sustainable development research internally, enabling further and meaningful engagement with the researchers it identifies, and encouraging cross-faculty working, potentially providing a rationale for researchers to engage in sustainable development as an exciting discipline in it’s own right, contributing solutions to contemporary issues.