Abstract

UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) should be the backbone for R&I policies at all levels. They define the framework for resilient, equal and prosperous world for which researchers and innovators around the globe create solutions. The level at which SDGs are integrated into research agendas vary greatly among organisations. Similarly, the level of competences regarding the SDGs differs within the RMA community.

Integration of SDGs into research is mainly on the responsibility of individual researchers, but building a competitive proposal is a team exercise. Researchers can benefit from RMAs’ guidance and support when aligning their projects with the framework of the SDGs. Hence, also RMAs knowledge of SDGs should be enhanced.

Tampere University of Applied Sciences (TAMK) is committed to ensure that the SDGs are integrated into all its R&I projects. In our internal project idea process, the SDG topics are inserted in the project idea form which the researchers utilise to describe their early phase project idea; which of the SDGs their project idea addresses and how. This reflection is one of the award criteria in the internal selection process of the ideas. Integration of SDGs also directly supports the proposal preparation, as many funding programmes require a specified alignment between the RDI activities and the SDGs.

SDG alignment and impact objectives of the projects are followed systematically by TAMK’s RMAs. Monitoring takes place in interim and final evaluation sessions and includes factors related to the SDGs most relevant to the project theme. RMAs are expected to spar the researcher in SDG topics. Even though the actions to align R&I activities with SDGs are constantly being developed, it is obvious that the expertise of our RMAs is not yet on a sufficient level to be able to optimally support the researchers.

In order to gain a wider understanding of competences of RMA professionals related to SDGs, we will carry out an online survey on the role of SDGs in the work of TAMK’s RMA personnel and our network of international RMAs around Europe. The results, conclusions and recommendations will be presented in our poster in EARMA Conference 2023, hopefully leading to fruitful discussions and sharing experiences around this topic among the EARMA community.

The SDGs should be inherently integrated into the visions and research strategies and their implementation at organisational level. For the RMA professionals to be able to support researchers on their way towards the SDGs, we need processes and tools, which support and ensure their integration into the planning and implementation of R&I projects. Professional development of RMAs in novel transversal aspects such as the SDGs should be on the agenda of all organisations involved in R&I. This will ultimately lead to more impactful R&I project results and outcomes.

Main take-away message
Widening and deepening of professional competences of RMAs as regards SDGs is a joint endeavour. Therefore, we want to encourage the EARMA community to support this professional development among its members by raising awareness, shared best practices, dialogue and co-creation.