The lead partner, the University of Gloucestershire (UOG), hosts a United Nations Regional Centre of Expertise in sustainability education. UOG has pioneered the transformation of the whole university towards sustainability and resilience. This covers high level policy, curriculum innovation and student development, and practical impacts such as carbon reduction, waste and food.
UOG has a long-standing commitment to sustainability and a track record for its performance and innovation in this area. The step change came from integrating education for sustainable development into courses to change the ‘brainprint’ of graduates. This recognises critical resilience and sustainability as an educational priority, inspiring change in individuals, professions and organisations.
Students across UOG are increasingly driving the change, supported through Live Smart, a student led initiative to help people live in ways that benefit their wellbeing, finances, local community and the wider planet. Hosting the Countryside and Community Research Institute (CCRI), the largest specialist rural research centre in the UK, the University acts as an interface between agriculture, society and the environment on issues relevant to rural and urban development.
The University is regarded as a Centre of Excellence in cyber resilience. UOG works closely with major security firms and the National Cyber Security Centre and was recently commissioned by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to carry out research on cybersecurity public-private partnerships with a view to inform foreign policy on cyber-capacity building.
In 2017, UOG was successful in securing significant Erasmus+ CBHE funding to lead a project entitled Growing Indonesia – a Triangular Approach (www.growingindonesia.eu). The project involves building entrepreneurial capacity through university-business collaboration, graduate entrepreneurship and enterprise creation and by working in partnership with the public, private and non-governmental sector is showing significant impact in the creation of an entrepreneurial eco-system across Indonesia.
Working in partnership with Global Resilience, a UK based consulting firm with high profile international project management expertise in disaster resilience, logistics and crisis and security management, UOG oversees the creation of Centres of Excellence in Disaster Resilience across Indonesia, the embedding of disaster resilience into university governance and the creation and implementation of localised disaster response and recovery blueprints.