USP researchers are going to act on eleven different themes based on the Sustainable Development Objectives (SDO) of the United Nations in order to contribute to the development of public policies and promote better life quality to the population. Learn more about the USP Thematic Axis Program here.

Identifying how the university can help in solving huge social problems with an interdisciplinary approach, offering solutions which may be able to influence public policies based on produced knowledge, and connecting USP even more to society. These are the strategic objectives of USP’s Thematic Axis Program, officially launched on April 4th 2022, at a meeting held at the University Counsil’s office, located at the Rector’s building, in São Paulo.

The program is divided into 11 wide-ranging thematic areas, based on the 17 Sustainable Development Objectives (SDO) of the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda. The themes are: Agribusiness, Inequalities, Democracy, Cities, Culture and arts, Education, Economy, Energy, Industry, Environment, and Health.

The project is organized with two professors of USP coordinating each theme with the assistance of at least 10 specialists from the University, so-called “leading authors”, to promote an assortment of agenda items capable of contributing to the development of public policies based on knowledge, as well as subsiding media, promoting interviews and debates that emphasize the importance of sustainability, innovation, and social inclusion in many branches of society. The program will also have the support of postdoctoral and graduate students.

“Society has grand expectations regarding the knowledge developed at the University. We need to utilize this expertise to contribute to different social segments, offering means to better decision making and interacting with government instances and business sectors”, emphasized USP’s rector, Carlos Gilberto Carlotti Junior. To the institution’s Vice-rector, Maria Arminda do Nascimento Arruda, “this is a project with a mission and that has the prestige of transforming USP into an instrument of public action, a societal laboratory”.

Dean of the Biosciences Institute (IB) and advisor of the Rector’s Council, Marcos Buckeridge, explained the work method that will be applied, which has the Sustainable Cities Guide as reference. The Guide was produced in 2020 by the Synthesis Center of USP Global Cities program of USP’s Advanced Studies Institute (IEA).

“For each axis, we’ve made the attribution of three SDO. In that way, every axis has a transversal correlation with all 17 SDO. And why have we chosen the SDO? Because they encompass almost all the items we need for development, without affecting the climate, and also being able to lower inequalities. The case of sustainability is that we make things that affect as minimum as possible the future generations”, explained Buckeridge.

Professor of the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences (FCF) and advisor of the Rector’s Council, Célia Regina da Silva Garcia, was responsible for the presentation of the coordinators of each axis of the program.