Centre receives funding boost from Swedish research council Formas

Several researchers based at the Stockholm Resilience Centre or its partnering institution Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics were among the successful applicants to receive funding for projects designed to create research that is highly relevant to the UN’s global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The Formas call Realising the Sustainable Development Goals received a total of 174 applications, but only 11 projects were selected for funding.

Three of these had strong contributions from the Stockholm Resilience Centre and its partner, the Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

Science in action: intersecting pathways to the SDGs across scales in the drylands

This project addresses the critical issues of co-designing inclusive pathways towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through a science-action research process in three critical dryland regions - Senegal, Brazil, and Spain. The project will advance knowledge on barriers and leverage points for the achievement of the SDGs through participative transdisciplinary processes operating at multiple levels, from local to global, as a means to connect global goals to local issues and aspirations.

Centre researchers involved: Ana Paula Aguiar, Amanda Jiménez-Aceituno, Deborah Goffner, Andrea Downing, Hanna Sinare, Maria Mancilla, David Collste, Ashley Perl, Steven Lade

Achieving the sustainable development goals in an unequal world

This project will identify synergies and trade-offs between reducing inequalities (SDG 10) and safeguarding the biosphere (SDGs 14 and 15). It will:

1) identify patterns between different types of inequality and environmental indicators

2) investigate processes hindering the achievement of the SDGs, as exemplified in the seafood and palm oil industries in Indonesia

3) identify practices that can harness win/win interactions between SDGs while minimizing trade-offs.

Centre researchers and colleagues from the Beijer Institute involved: Carl Folke, Caroline Schill, Patrik Henriksson, Emilie Lindkvist, Juan Carlos Rocha, Anne-Sophie Crepín

The Economics of Planetary Boundaries

This project will identify new computer modelling tools to answer questions like:

What would be the impact on the planetary pressures if we solve the climate and hunger problems simultaneously?

What is the effect on the planetary pressures of directing technical change towards agriculture, or to transformed energy systems?

Which policies respect and maintain the planet’s safe operating space without hindering progress on the sustainable development goals?

Centre researchers and colleagues from the Beijer Institute involved: Sarah Cornell, Steve Lade, Peter Søgaard Jørgensen, Johan Gars, Gustav Engström