17. Partnerships for the Goals

Data for the indicator 17.1 Research into partnership for the goals (17.1.1 Proportion of output co-authored with low or lower-middle income countries and 17.1.2 Partnerships for the goals: publications) is being collected via Scopus.

17.2 Relationships to support the goals

17.2.1 Relationships with regional NGOs and government for SDG policy

The University is member of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network, see https://www.unsdsn.org/greece. Other indicative relationships:

• Professor Athanassios Dimas (Department of Civil Engineering) is a member of a committee organized by the Ministry of Infrastructures and Transportation to assess the development of National Guidelines for the design of marine and coastal projects.
• The Hydraulic Engineering Laboratory (Department of Civil Engineering) in collaboration with the Regional Government of Western Greece undertook two research programs: (a) the protection against river flooding with emphasis in the area of Ancient Olympia and (b) the protection against coastal erosion in the areas of Vrachnaiika-Tsoukalaiika.
• Collaboration with WWF, iSEA Environmental Organisation for the Preservation of the Aquatic Ecosystems, Tethys Research Institute.

17.2.2 Cross sectoral dialogue about SDGs

• The members of the student research team “Patras Medicine iGEM 2023” returned to Greece with the gold medal from the iGEM Global Synthetic Biology Competition held in Paris on November 2-5. The team consists of 10 undergraduate and graduate students from the departments of Pharmacy, Biology, Chemistry and Computer Engineering and Informatics of the University of Patras. The team members were awarded the Gold Medal, among 400 teams from 66 countries around the world, maintaining the tradition of the team’s distinctions for the second consecutive year. The project experiments were carried out in laboratories of the Department of Biology of the University of Patras and the Institute of Cellular Therapies at the University of Patras Research Center. You may find more at https://2023.igem.wiki/patras-med/sdg. 

• The objective of the Wind4Bio project is to support its target groups (primarily public administrations and authorities, civil society and the wind energy sector) in creating a policy and social environment that is more conducive to the sustainable development of wind energy capacity in the participating territories. To that end, it focused on addressing one of the main barriers to the proliferation of wind energy, namely biodiversity concerns related to the deployment, operation and retirement of wind turbines.

17.2.3 International collaboration data gathering for SDG

The University is member of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network, see https://www.unsdsn.org/greece. Other indicative collaborations:

• The Ether network is a system for monitoring and recording suspended particles, within the framework of the research activities of the Laboratory of Atmospheric Physics of the University of Patras. It consists of suspended particle measurement sensors, panoramic cameras and an online platform that records the air quality in Patras in real time. The Laboratory of Atmospheric Physics measures suspended particles PM1, PM2.5, PM10 with fixed and mobile stations that include low-cost sensors and standard measuring instruments, in order to study the air quality in the Greater Area of Patras. The data are openly public for all researchers.
• The project "Monitoring and Assessment of the Conservation Status of Terrestrial and Wetland Habitat Types of Community Interest in Greece" in which researchers from our University participate is part of a broader plan of the Ministry of Environment and Energy aiming to cover both European and national needs for the implementation of the Nature Directives. It continues the implementation of previous projects of monitoring and assessment of the conservation status with a focus on the areas of the NATURA 2000 network that have Management Units, and the remaining areas of the NATURA 2000 network (approximately 70% of the area). The project attempts to contribute to the fulfillment of obligations arising from Directives 92/43/EEC & 2009/147/EC (bird fauna surveillance), to the protection of habitat types and species, to the promotion of the conservation of objects of surveillance, to the facilitation of competent services in making decisions regarding the planning, siting and licensing of projects and activities and to the effective monitoring of protected areas and biodiversity in the country.
• The Global Soil Laboratory Network (GLOSOLAN) was established in 2017 to build and strengthen the capacity of laboratories in soil analysis and to respond to the need for harmonizing soil analytical data. Harmonization of methods, units, data and information is critical to (i) provide reliable and comparable information between countries and projects; (ii) allow the generation of new harmonized soil data sets; and (iii) support evidence-based decision making for sustainable soil management. The work of GLOSOLAN supports the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development and the mandate of FAO on food security and nutrition. University of Patras participates through the Soil Science Laboratory of the Department of Agriculture.
• The University assists in the collection of protected marine by catch fisheries species under the frame of a Mediterranean project entitled "Understanding Mediterranean multi-taxa bycatch of vulnerable species and testing mitigation – Phase 2 (MedBycatch Phase 2)" (9E209001) funded by WWF.

17.2.4 Collaboration for SDG best practice

17.2.5 Collaboration with NGOs for SDGs

Peace and justice are achieved through strong institutions and academic institutions must be an aid in their strengthening. One such form of aid is the first academic “Centre for the Rights of the Child” established by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the University of Patras. In a ceremony held at the University of Patras, the two institutions signed a Memorandum of Understanding, sealing their joint commitment to the defense and promotion of the rights of the Child in Greece through the production of knowledge, research programmes, educational resources, data and documentation, the dissemination of children’s rights in the Academic Community and society at large, but also through their integration as a horizontal dimension in academic, teaching and research work. UNICEF Diplomatic Representative, Dr. Ghassan Khalil, stated "UNICEF is pleased and proud to inaugurate today the first Child Rights Center in Greece. The academic community plays an important role in the promotion and protection of children's rights and we commend the pioneering role of the University of Patras in this", while the Rector of the University of Patras, Mr. Bouras, noted "We are very proud that the University of Patras is the first University in Greece to create the Child Rights Center, within the framework of the Cooperation between the University of Patras and the UNICEF Office in Greece". The official announcement can be found here.

17.3 Publication of SDG reports

17.3.1 to 17.3.17 Publication of SDG reports - per SDG

The report on each of the 17 SDGs has been uploaded on the publicly open access institutional repository "Nemertes". The report includes indicative information about the activity of the administration, the research teams, the volunteers, the cultural network to mark progress on everyone of the 17 SDGs, indicative publications that are indexed in Scopus, indicative theses and dissertations that can be accessed publicly from the institutional repository and the progress bar according to the targets that were set in 2021.

The report can be found here.

17.4 Education for the SDGs

17.4.1 Education for SDGs commitment to meaningful education

On the open access institutional repository "Nemertes" one can find theses and dissertations from many Departments on the Sustainable Development Goals.

• List of theses and dissertations (2023)
• List of theses and dissertations (all years)

17.4.2 Education for SDGs: specific courses on sustainability

As mentioned in the page for SDG4, the University operates the Lifelong Learning Center – University of Patras, which offers several courses for vocational training. The Center provides both free and paid courses. Indicative courses mentioning SDGs are:

• Human rights and sexuality education
• Environment, viability and sustainable development: applications in education
• Training Farmers and Producers in Cutting Edge Technologies in the Agricultural Sector. Digital Transformation and Agricultural Production (SMARTeDU)
• Mental health nursing in vulnerable social groups
• Training – Certification of Individuals in Wild Mushroom Picker Skills – Level A
• Annual Training in Intercultural Education
  

17.4.3 Education for SDGs in the wider community

The iGEM provides resources on the SDGs to the wider community, using gamification techniques in order to be more accessible by the younger ages.

One of the open access textbooks by University teaching staff had the topic of energy economics and sustainable development. The textbook by Konstantinos E. Kounetas and Nikolaos Chatzistamoulou "Energy Economics, Climate Change and Sustainable Development" can be found at https://repository.kallipos.gr/handle/11419/9354 and its abstract describes its content as follows:

Energy and its various sources are a critical factor for economic development. Our past and current energy choices have enabled many incredible opportunities and benefits for society. The creation of incalculable wealth and prosperity for the inhabitants of our planet, the massive expansion of the population around the world, the exploitation of the vast amounts of natural resources and the creation of a sense of security but also the environmental outbreaks and dangers are due to the use of energy. Energy is the foundation upon which all nations, economies and societies have been built. In the last three decades, the incentive to examine our energy system has been very limited, as the energy industry has largely relied on its ability to provide increasing amounts of these vital inputs to global economic growth. However, the two energy crises in the 1970s and the most recent one, the problems from the greenhouse effect and therefore the greatest problem for humanity climate changebrought to the fore, the economics of energy and much more recently the economics of climate change. In recent years, the study of sustainable development has contributed to the immense need to adapt to new conditions of production and consumption, among other things, intensifying the necessity for the creation of a modern book that connects these complex and seemingly unrelated issues. The consequence was the revision of curricula on a global scale to include the subject of energy and climate change economics, both at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels, with the aim ofeducating and preparingyoung scientists and at the same time of informing citizens for contemporary challenges.

In the course "Introduction to Natural Sciences & Scientific Cultivation II", students of the Department of Educational Sciences and Early Childhood Education build the necessary scientific knowledge about the concept of energy. By participating in laboratory exercises, students (a) understand the nature of energy and build basic energy concepts such as storage, conversion, transport, degradation of energy, (b) learn how conventional energy source systems work and how they can be replaced by Renewable Energy Sources systems, (c) are trained in issues of measurement and economy in the use of energy. In addition, because the course is linked to the vertical internship of the department, students design and implement energy-related activities in kindergarten classes, emphasizing Renewable Energy Sources. This opportunity responds to the challenge that future preschool teachers will face, when they will have to teach energy-related topics. As energy is integrated into the preschool curriculum, in the Child and Natural Sciences thematic unit, the course aims to prepare students to understand and teach this particularly difficult scientific topic. The training that students receive in this undergraduate course prepares them appropriately so that they can implement in educational practice activities related to achieving the goal of affordable and clean energy, which is one of the 17 SDGs of the United Nations.

Photo from the laboratory by Niki Sissamperi.

During the teaching of the course "Natural History Museums and the Environment", a unit was dedicated to the "Green Museum" and the relationship of modern museums with sustainable development and sustainability, focusing on the questions: How do museums inspire/inspire people to make sustainable choices in their daily lives? To what extent do museums adopt sustainability and "green" design in their practice? How do museums present the issue of climate change today? On the occasion of the above, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals were also presented. Furthermore, within the framework of the course "Museum and City", the view was presented that urban development should result from a set of integrated interventions for the economic and social revitalization of urban areas with multiple problems and be linked to the principle of sustainability. (note: the course is open, but requires Sign In).