Sustainability has been gathering momentum as a core value at University of Galway for a number of years. Our commitment to sustainability is reflected in our recently awarded status as a National SDG Champion in Ireland for 2023/24.

In the J.E. Cairnes School of Business and Economics Strategic Plan 2021-2025 Sustainable communities and cities and Digitalisation are both key parts of what can make us “A School of Business and Economics for the Public Good”.

Who we are

Awarded a substantial grant in an internal Strategic Funding competition in 2022, Dr David Kreps, in the Business Information Systems discipline in the School, is the creator and Principal Investigator for the Mainstreaming the SDGs project that has created this SDG Showcase website. David is a trans-disciplinary academic and technology ethicist bringing critical philosophy to bear upon management information systems.

In April 2023 Dr. Ann O’Brien joined David as post-doctoral Researcher on the project, to undertake the interviews and create individual profiles. Ann’s work has focused on how community is created and valued in different settings: including participation in online public engagement, co-creation in recovery education and hybrid/remote workers’ experience of value creation in rural communities. Her work takes a co-creation and information sharing approach which aims to make research accessible to all.

In September 2023 Accelerating Action were commissioned to provide their Target-level analysis tool and to help create this website. The Accelerating Action Tool has been nominated for digital innovation in climate action awards by both UN Climate Change and the European Commission. The Accelerating Action Tool has been adopted by the national government of Ireland.

The Mainstreaming the SDGs Project

The Mainstreaming the SDGs Project comprised interview-based action research for concurrent in-depth mapping and development of staff engagement with the SDGs, at Target level, for all faculty in the J. E. Cairnes School of Business and Economics. The project has taken a holistic approach that recognises equally the diverse elements of faculty work, from a starting point inspired by the University of Galway Learn – Live – Lead approach to sustainability. 

The project discovers how faculty live the SDGs in their Research, Teaching, and Engagement activities. This is showcased in the website through individual profiles for each academic, discoverable through target-level search, keyword search, and by searching for individual academics. 

The project highlights existing work that is contributing to the SDGs in the J. E. Cairnes School of Business and Economics as well as areas for learning and improvement. As a result of this work we are now – as we hoped – finding areas of shared interest across the School and the wider university, and discovering new opportunities for internal collaboration and external partnerships, examples of which will be showcased on this website.