GLOBAL KNOWLEDGE FOR GLOBAL CHANGE

Research:

Social, Technological and Environmental Pathways to Sustainability (STEPS) Centre

The STEPS Centre (Social, Technological and Environmental Pathways to Sustainability) is an interdisciplinary global research and policy engagement centre.

Uniting development studies with science and technology studies, our natural and social scientists work together across: agriculture and food; energy and climate change; health and disease and water and sanitation.

Our research addresses two vital global challenges: linking environmental sustainability with better livelihoods and health for poor people; and helping science and technology work for poverty reduction and social justice.

Rapid environmental and social changes – such as climate change, population explosion, urbanisation and globalised economics – are making the core development challenges of alleviating poverty and inequity increasingly complex.

The STEPS Centre is developing a new ‘pathways approach’ to understanding and action on sustainability and development, providing both new thinking and practical solutions. Our work looks at how pathways to sustainability – linking environmental integrity with social justice – can be built in today’s complex, dynamic world.

For instance, how might African farmers meet their needs in the context of climate change? How can we understand and address emergent epidemic diseases? And how might poor people access water in the expanding fringes of Asia’s megacities?

The STEPS Centre launched in 2006 and is based at the Institute of Development Studies and SPRU Science and Technology Policy Research at the University of Sussex in the UK.

We work with a network of partners in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe and are funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.

The Centre is run by director Professor Melissa Leach with co-directors Professor Ian Scoones and Professor Andy Stirling. We are overseen by an International Advisory Committee of globally renowned academics, policymakers, business and media professionals.