Research on the Sustainable Development Goals
In 2024, the University of Augsburg adopted a comprehensive sustainability strategy, which will be continuously developed and implemented in the coming years. As part of a comprehensive assessment conducted by the university's Green Office, it was demonstrated how, and to what extent, the university is already contributing to the realisation of the goals of the sustainability strategy in the areas of research, teaching, and operations.
This analysis provided a detailed overview of which research projects deal with sustainability issues, what sustainability-related content is taught in the teaching area, and what contribution the university is making to climate protection, energy efficiency and the prevention of waste, for example.
The aim of the sustainability strategy is, on the one hand, to enable the university to further raise its profile in its commitment to sustainability and, on the other hand, to document its sustainability activities transparently and make them accessible to the public through annual reporting. The United Nations
Sustainable Development Goals, (SDGs) serve as a central analytical and structural feature.
Analysis of SDG-related publications
In the area of research, the university's current research projects and publications were systematically examined for their relevance to the SDGs. The aim of the survey is to increase the visibility of sustainability-related research activities and to further develop and raise the profile of Augsburg as a centre of science and education in the field of sustainability. A review of publications from 2021 to 2025 alone shows that around 2,000 of the approximately 5,200 publications surveyed already address the content of one or more SDGs.
Publications are assigned to the SDGs using a scientifically sound analysis method developed by Elsevier Publishing as part of the "SDG Research Mapping Initiative." In collaboration with universities and other research institutions worldwide, this initiative provides data, expertise, and best practices from science to identify research that contributes to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. SDG assignment is carried out using search queries (or search strings) that Elsevier has developed and continuously optimised since 2018. These queries search the titles, abstracts, and keywords of scientific publications and are supplemented by machine learning to increase the relevance and precision of the results. This methodology is used by Times Higher Education (THE), among others, for its impact ranking. Further information is available on the following link: https://www.elsevier.com/about/sustainability/sdg-research-mapping-initiativeReview of research from 2021 to 2025
The following graphic shows the detailed results of this evaluation, with a particular focus on SDG 3 " Good Health and Well-being " and SDG 9 "Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure." Moreover, the publications cover the entire spectrum of the SDGs.
