Distinctive Strathclyde
Solving Societal Challenges

We will continue to champion transdisciplinary approaches to tackling society’s greatest challenges in innovative and impactful ways to deliver change for the communities we serve locally, nationally and internationally.
There is an urgent need for social innovation as the gap between the scale of the challenges and the scale of the available solutions continues to widen. At present there are many grand challenges and ‘wicked problems’ facing society. Innovative and creative solutions are required at the local and global level. Social innovation is particularly needed in fields where problems are increasing but existing models are failing or have become stagnant, such as climate change, homelessness, increasing inequity including economic inequalities and digital poverty, physical and mental wellbeing. In addition to solving pressing social and global challenges, social innovation is important because it:
- empowers communities and individuals
- fosters cross-sector collaboration
- contributes to sustainable development
- inspires policy improvements
- stimulates entrepreneurship and economic growth
- promotes social inclusion and equity
- encourages continuous learning and knowledge sharing
Using Digital Innovation to Deliver Social & Environmental Sustainability

Leveraging our digital innovation, the University of Strathclyde has multiple opportunities for our students to engage with sustainable development challenges, both locally and internationally. These classes enable students to work across disciplines on real world challenges, building the skills and competencies they will need in the world of work.
Strathclyde has an extensive global network, engaging and collaborating with our international partners across both research and education, to tackle the climate emergency facing us all. Key to this work are opportunities for our students to work with their peers from different parts of the world, and to see the world through the lived experience and perspective of others. Our Climate Connect programme led by the Centre for Sustainable Development leverages digital communication to enable peers from Scotland, China, Canada, Sweden, Malawi, South Africa and beyond to achieve this, engaging in discourse and activities to drive action and change.
We also established a collaborative centre as part of the Global Environmental Measurement & Monitoring (GEMM) network – GEMM Scotland. Launched in 2019, our centre hosts the Strathclyde Centre for Doctoral Training in Global Environmental Monitoring & Policy, a water economies project, and the Glasgow Urban Air Project. The Urban Air Project is a collaboration with the GEMM Center Northern California and Glasgow City Council to deploy a reliable, real-time sensor network for air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions in the city. Our centre is also working with institutions in three additional regions: Université Laval in Québec; University of Otago in Dunedin; and University of California, Berkeley and Stanford University, both in Northern California. Working together these GEMM centres are identifying and beginning to address measurement needs in their respective regions, but sharing across the GEMM network technology, data, and insights to provide for informed decision-making in priority environmental issues worldwide. Our GEMM centre is a key element of the University of Strathclyde and City of Glasgow project on outdoor and indoor air quality. This £1 million project on air quality launched in May 2023.
We also work to ensure that the Scottish workforce is well-equipped to tackle sustainable development challenges. Key to this is our ever-expanding range of upskilling offerings from across all four faculties. The majority of these are offered online to make them as accessible as possible and include: Introduction to Sustainable Development: Policy and Practice; Anticipating Future Scenarios; Digital Manufacturing to Net Zero; Renewable Energy Systems; and more.