Science for Sustainability Hub

SDG 5: Gender Equality

Solutions to support a more equitable society

Name Areas of research Description
Benjamin Bach

data visualization

data science

public engagement

Working on data visualization and making data accessible and understandable by experts and non-experts. Data visualization is essential in understanding complex processes and data sets. Especially, techniques from storytelling and visual communication have huge potential to communicate findings and information to large and diverse audiences. 
Liz Baggs

climate smart technologies

agritechnology

environmental change

Development of mitigation strategies for greenhouse gas emissions from agri-environment systems. This includes international partnerships, and with non-academic stakeholders, to enhance a circular nutrient economy that lowers reliance on inorganic fertilisers in smallholder farming systems. 
Zexun Chen

AI

social sciences & policy

environmental adaptation

Interested in data‑driven sustainable urban planning and transportation design, including AI methodologies to spread opportunities and develop sustainable public services to end geographical inequality through advanced data‑driven urban planning and transportation design equipped with ethical awareness. Also interested in methodology development of science for sustainability in finance.
Christine Cooper

green washing

policy making

abuses of power

Interested in accounting technologies and how these strongly impact upon the majority of decisions made in organisations and government.
Simone Dimartino

bioprocessing

adsorption technologies

additive manufacturing

Broadly interested in adsorption technologies for applications ranging from manufacture of new healthcare products and foodstuff to CO2 capture.
Appolinaire Djikeng

tropical livestock

genetic improvement

smallholder farmers  

Director of the Centre for Tropical Livestock Genetics and Health (CTLGH). https://www.ctlgh.org/resources/publications/
Alan Duncan

pastoral livelihoods

livestock systems

climate uncertainty

Leads the Jameel Observatory for Food Security Early Action for University of Edinburgh. The Observatory is focused use of early warning technologies to better prepare for drought in East Africa. It's goals are to enhance wellbeing and reduce hunger among East African pastoral communities.
Debora Gottardello

AI

technological advancements

diversity inclusion

power

HR

Research related to the future of work and HR. How organizations and HR department can empower innovation with the right diversity & inclusion, new edge leadership and inspiring culture within workforces. Understand the way in which HR can support ecosystems that consist of more community-driven learning and enforcing social capital along with human capital.
Alex Hutchison

data & AI for good

climate change

responsible innovation

The Data for Children Collaborative with UNICEF is a joint partnership between UNICEF, The Scottish Government and the University of Edinburgh’s Data Driven Innovation Programme which seeks to enable improvement in outcomes for every child. We draw on the strengths of our partners and their network to bring insight and solve problems using data and responsible innovative data practices, with a focus on delivering against the Sustainable Development Goals. Our mission is to provide the platform that brings together the appropriate data and expertise to answer our challenge questions for children across a variety of themes and geographies.
Susan Jarvis 

sustainable Food systems

agritech

animal welfare science 

Interested in Sustainable Food Systems, and in particular the role of animal welfare science to ensure sustainable and socially acceptable food production systems. Leads the delivery of UG programmes and courses in Global Agriculture and Food Security, as well as the DDI Agritech Talent programme aimed at upskilling learners in data science and technology relevant to sustainable food systems.  
Ohad Kammar

AI

programming languages

Interested in higher-level abstractions for statistical modelling and their analysis engines. A key aim is to make the models higher-level so it is easier to understand what it is doing and its biases, and lowering the entry-bar into the modelling activity.
Meriem El Karoui

biotechnology

molecular microbiology

AMR

Works on understanding how bacteria become resistant to antibiotics and how to better find solutions to avoid resistance. We combine molecular microbiology, mathematical modelling and biophysics to address these questions
John McCloskey

risk

co-production

urbanisation

We run the GCRF Tomorrow's Cities Hub which aims to reduce disaster risk for the 2 billion new urban residents of tomorrow's rapidly expanding cities. We use interdisciplinary methods to understand risk and tools for risk assessment that can democratise the concept of risk and allow poor communities to argue for safer and more human future urban expansion.
Dominic Moran
environmental, agricultural and food systems economics
Interested in definitions and metrics of sustainability, economic appraisal of technological options using non-market valuation, and behavioral and political appraisal of technology adoption. 
Lynne Regan

biotechnology 

agritechnology

human health 

Expertise in biomaterials, such as hydrogels, made exclusively from recombinant proteins produced by bacteria. This method contrasts with those that use petrochemically derived components to synthesise such materials.  
Björn Ross

AI

social sciences & policy

Interested in responsible use of the technologies and resilience to nefarious uses. Particular focus in people's interactions with one another over technology and people's interactions with technology, using computational methods. This includes, for example, the automatic flagging of abusive social media content and the reduction of bias in AI methods that evaluate user-generated content online.
Michael Rovatsos
AI and its application to sustainability
Focus on AI algorithms that can support the development of technologies supporting fairness, equality, and social justice. As part of my role at the intersection of research and innovation, I am also interested in many other areas of sustainability where AI and data science can be applied.
Christian Schnier

veterinary health

internet of things

SEBI livestock (https://sebi-livestock.org/) closely works with the Gates foundation to mobilise and improve data and evidence to help the livestock community make better investments that improve livelihoods for smallholders in low and middle-income countries.
Lila Skountridaki

digitalisation of the workplace & decent work

the digitalisation of the workplace & productivity

Focus on new forms of flexible work (remote work; hybrid work; the 4 day work week) assisted by the digitalisation of the workplace, and how these enhance or threaten the Quality of Working Lives (including work-life balance, staff productivity, staff well-being and employee voice). 
Shuo Wang

green financing

greenwashing

csr disclosure

Impact of corporate ESG performance on the cost of capital;  he causes and consequences of the assurance quality of the corporate ESG disclosure; greenwashing and its capital market consequences.
Maria Wolters
ehealth, human-computer interaction
Digital inclusion for health and social care. I am interested in resilient,  affordable, and easily maintainable solutions for service users and key providers. I work with LMIC partners (Uganda, Nepal, India) on mental, maternal, and population health.