About this collection

The planet is facing some serious challenges, and Humans are the cause of several of them. We are arguably the most creative creatures on the planet, with brains that allow us to build civilizations and shape the world in big ways…but our creativity is often coupled with unsustainable behaviors - and in our quest to be bigger and better at everything, we started to harm both the planet and people.

To try to solve our sustainability problems, the United Nations (UN) agreed on a set of goals to ensure humans can keep living sustainably. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a set of 17 goals we need to achieve by 2030, if we want to live healthy lives on a healthy planet and society. They are a blueprint for a better and more sustainable world for all, and address global challenges we currently face, including poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, peace, and justice. Made for all countries, and all people, these goals recognize
that ending poverty must go hand-in-hand with protecting our planet.

So how can science help us to reach the UN SDGs? In this collection of articles, you will learn how science plays a key role in helping us to achieve them. From developing new technologies and helping us adapt to climate change to providing data to inform countries on critical issues like health or nature conservation, you will learn how research carried out at KAUST is essential for meeting the challenges of the 21st century and the future ahead of us.

We hope you‘ll get inspired by the amazing discoveries our scientists make every day to solve our global problems and that you start doing your part to help achieve the UN SDGs by sharing the importance of science with everyone. If all of us become aware of the problems we face – and also the solutions being created - we will be able to demand quicker and bolder actions for sustainable development. The clock is ticking!

This Collection is a collaboration between King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) office from Saudi Arabia.