Transformations to Sustainability

Background  

Launched in 2014, T2S focused on amplifying the contribution of social science to research on global environmental challenges. The project improved research capacity, promoted the use of the best social science knowledge available and provided a platform for social scientists – particularly those from the Global South – to lead interdisciplinary sustainability research.  

Through grants and research funding, T2S enabled social scientists around the world to develop and share cutting-edge thinking on social transformations and on engaged, co-designed and co-produced sustainability research. 

The programme had two phases. With funding from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), the first phase provided 38 seed grants and funded three major international research projects, or ‘Transformative Knowledge Networks’, focusing on social transformations to sustainability. Between 2014 and 2019, the project offered a total research budget of 3.7m EUR. 

In the second phase, the ISC and Sida partnered with the Belmont Forum and NORFACE to fund 12 international research projects running from 2018 to 2022, with an increased research budget of 11.5m EUR.  

What is transformation? 

• Watch: Leading scholars and practitioners Ulrich Brand, Cheikh Mbow and Karen O’Brien discuss critical questions for research on transformations to sustainability in 2021. 
• Watch: Ten leading thinkers discuss social transformation, and how to achieve it. 
• Watch: Members of the T2S projects share ideas on ‘transformations in practice’ – what kind of transformations in research and practice are needed, and how can we make them happen, quickly?