By Professor Robert Van de Noort
One of the joys of being a University Vice-Chancellor is in learning about the passion and creativity that thrives in our local community.
Sometimes these are things that involve the University our students and my colleagues.
Very often they are just wonderful things that our neighbours are doing to strengthen our community for everyone.
Take, for example, Reading’s High Street Heritage Action Zone. Or in Wokingham, the Roots Community Store.
I highlight these projects because, whether their hero organisers know it or not, they are playing a vital role in our community’s mission to work towards a future without poverty in all its forms, wherever it is found; a mission that is shared across the world through the United Nations Global Goals.
In both these examples, residents and local leaders have teamed up to help those in need and make their world a better place.
I saw another great example of this recently when Felix Weaver won the University of Reading’s just IMAGINE if… award, giving him access to £100,000 worth of world-class research and expertise.
Just IMAGINE if… is a call to action for forward thinkers across the globe to propose daring, sustainable business ideas that address the UN sustainable development goals.
Felix’s idea to make learning more accessible by pairing academic information with music will help people all over the world. His innovation fits in with many of the 17 UN sustainable development goals, including Quality Education, Industry and Innovation and Reducing Inequalities.
Last, but not at all least on the list, is the 17th goal – Partnerships for the Goals, defined as action to strengthen ways to implement the other 16 goals, and to revitalise partnerships for sustainable development.
Working together with others, and sustainability, are very important to me and others at the University. Saying that is all very well, but we need to back words up with action.
When I attended the culmination of the ‘just IMAGINE if…’ event at our Henley Business School Greenlands campus, I was reminded how lucky we are living and working in the Thames Valley – and yet, how fragile our environment and society can be.
The sound of the River Thames flowing by Greenlands reminded me that for some people, rivers have been dangerous and unpredictable neighbours.
And we need the support of businesses and entrepreneurs, just as much as we need scientists and governments, to develop the ideas that will keep us safe.
Professor Robert Van de Noort is the vice-chancellor of the University of Reading
