About

The Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures is a collaboration between the Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment and The University of Sheffield.

We work with experts from academia, business and policy to create a sustainable future. And a key part of this is mentoring the next generation of sustainability researchers.

The Grantham Scholars

Experts from science, social science, engineering, arts & humanities and medicine come together at the Grantham Centre. As a result, we have a uniquely multidisciplinary team. These experts supervise the 70 PhD students funded by the Grantham Centre – these are the Grantham Scholars.

In order to foster a broad-minded approach to sustainability problems, each Scholar has supervisors from at least 2 different disciplines. And because we want the Grantham Scholars to be the sustainability leaders of tomorrow, we also provide a special training program.

This training equips them with the necessary skills to engage with all areas of sustainability work. For example, the Grantham Scholars learn how to be expert activists, engage with policy makers and collaborate with industry.

Research

Additional to the research of the Grantham Scholars, we have set up dedicated research projects that address the most pressing environmental problems.

For example, we are tackling the plastic pollution crisis with Plastics: Redefining Single-Use. For this project we have gathered a team of world-class experts. From chemistry to psychology, our plastics team work together to create new knowledge and solve old problems. With £1 million funding from UKRI, these experts will redefine single-use plastic.

Engagement

Through innovative research, public engagement and network creation we have influenced policy and industrial strategy. Additionally, the Grantham Centre has fostered several flagships of research excellence at the University of Sheffield.

What Do We Do?

Research

We work across disciplines to create new ideas and technologies, which combine to make local, national and global communities more sustainable, now and in the future.

Training

We are building a global community of sustainability leaders through a PhD programme. The Grantham Scholars carry out excellent interdisciplinary research, learning the technical skills and political awareness needed to create a sustainable world.

Scholars

Our PhD students, the Grantham Scholars, work across disciplines conducting research across a huge range of subjects.

Sustainable Development Goals

Sustainable Development Goals are blueprints for a sustainable future. So UN member states are expected to use these Goals to frame agendas and policies. Find out here how Grantham Centre research connects to each Goal.

SDG 2 Zero Hunger

The food and agriculture sector offers key solutions for development, and is central for hunger and poverty eradication.

SDG 6 Clean Water and Sanitation

Clean, accessible water for all is an essential part of the world we want to live in.

SDG 7 Affordable and Clean Energy

Energy is central to nearly every major challenge and opportunity.

SDG 11 Sustainable Cities and Communities

There needs to be a future in which cities provide opportunities for all, with access to basic services, energy, housing, transportation and more.

SDG 12 Responsible Consumption and Production

Promoting resource and energy efficiency, sustainable infrastructure, and providing access to basic services, green and decent jobs and a better quality of life for all

SDG 13 Climate Action

Climate change is a global challenge that affects everyone, everywhere.

SDG 15 Life on Land

Sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, halt and reverse land degradation, halt biodiversity loss.

Our Background

The Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures is co-funded by the Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment, founded by Jeremy and Hanne Grantham.

A world-renowned investment manager, Jeremy Grantham was brought up in Doncaster and graduated from the University of Sheffield with a degree in Economics in 1961. He received an Honorary Doctorate from the University in 2012 and is a strong advocate for environmental issues.

“It is crucial that scientists take more career risks and sound a more realistic, more desperate, note on the global-warming problem. Younger scientists are obsessed by thoughts of tenure, so it is probably up to older, senior and retired scientists to do the heavy lifting. Be arrested if necessary. This is not only the crisis of your lives – it is also the crisis of our species’ existence. I implore you to be brave.”

Jeremy Grantham, Nature, 2012  Reprinted by permission from Macmillan Publishers Ltd: Nature (491, 303), copyright (2012)

 

Videos

Research Centres

We work closely with our partner sustainability teams at TUoS. Many of the researchers behind these groups are mentors to Grantham Scholars.

Energy2050

P3

SheFF

Sheffield Solar

SIID

UI