University of Sydney
AC-10: Support for Sustainability Research

PhD students at the University of Sydney are required to complete a set amount of coursework units to help broaden their research area. These include participation in capstone units such as the Master of Sustainability capstone which pairs them with other PhD and Masters students on a completely research based unit. Each group is specifically designed as interdisciplinary and they undertake an approved project of their own design linked to Sustainability. Other courses available include culture competence courses and science-related courses such as climate change, social sciences in the environment and food and water security. Some of these courses are specifically designed for PhD students to bring them together from across the university into one common subject area - https://www.sydney.edu.au/study/study-options/postgraduate-research.html
Master of sustainability students not in the PhD program are strongly encouraged to further their capstone project into doctorate level as part of the University

The University of Sydney Nano Institute has a 5 year program called Grand Challenges. The Sydney Nano Grand Challenges are aimed at discovering ground-breaking solutions to the world’s greatest challenges that are of social, economic and scientific significance. Bringing together researchers from across the University, the multidisciplinary Grand Challenge initiative will be enabled by advances in nanoscience and nanotechnology. The Grand Challenges are: Advanced Capture of Water from the Atmosphere, CO2 Zero, Safe-by-design Nanotechnology, Nanorobotics for Health, Computational Materials Discovery and Unlocking the Neural Interface
https://www.sydney.edu.au/nano/our-research/grand-challenges.html

The Sydney Environment Institute is one of our key Multidisciplinary Initiatives (MDI), a national and world leader in multidisciplinary environmental research, known in particular for work in the environmental humanities and social sciences. Its research themes are: Environmental humanities, adaption, justice, sustainability and food systems.
https://www.sei.sydney.edu.au

Both centres provide training, network facilitation and funding as part of their work.

Under the 2016-2020 University strategy, the Sydney Research Excellence Initiative (SREI) was the primary mechanism to encourage and support the formation of high-performing research groups in areas of existing and emergent research strength. It targets and develops candidates for prestigious external fellowships to build new successful research groups (including Future Fellowships, ARC Laureate Fellowships and NHMRC Senior Fellowships), as well as leaders of new collaborative research networks and whole-of-University initiatives such as the University's 9 multidisciplinary research centres and institutes, some of which explores solutions to global social, economic and environmental issues - https://www.sydney.edu.au/research/centres.html

Promotions example (Academic Promotions Procedures Section (9)):
Level C staff:
(a) General expectations:
(i) will be able to demonstrate a strong record of research, scholarly activities, teaching or teaching practices relating to their discipline;
(ii) will be acknowledged at national level as influential in expanding knowledge, or pedagogical and curriculum practice, within their discipline;
(iii) will normally make a significant contribution to any or all of the research scholarship, teaching or administration activities of an organisational unit or interdisciplinary area, at undergraduate or postgraduate level

The University library facilitates research support through the main library on our Camperdown/Darlington campus and various specialised libraries across our other campuses. This includes rare books and special collections that researchers have access too - library.sydney.edu.au

Academic Library Liaisons (ALLs) are available to all students and staff and are based around Faculty themes. They assist researchers, prioritising support for PhD students, with sourcing of material and using the University subject guides . ALLs also facilitate training (currently online) in areas such as data mining and strategic publishing. ALLs work with the University's central Research Portfolio to help PhD students and academic researchers to build industry and community partners and networks and to understand market intelligence in their research area - The Strong Start program (https://libguides.library.usyd.edu.au/market_intelligence). As part of their orientation, academic staff have a consultation with an ALL to introduce them to the University library and the services available.
ALLs - https://library.sydney.edu.au/contacts/subjectcontacts.html
Subject guides: https://libguides.library.usyd.edu.au/?b=s
Workshops and Training: https://library.sydney.edu.au/research/workshops.html and https://library.sydney.edu.au/help/online-training/

Interdisciplinary research requirements are often written into conditions of confirmation for academic staff (Levels A - C) but what the actual requirement differs from School to School to account for traditional and non-traditional research outcomes.

As part of the Sustainability Strategy 2020, incentives will be offered to staff to conduct SDG-aligned research by 2025. The University will also set up a Green Grants Scheme, part of which will enable students to expand research projects into living lab opportunities on campus and in the community.