We cultivate the academic community at UvA that is needed to pioneer sustainability research. USP does this by transcending disciplinary barriers. The USP will also function as a unified voice and point of contact for external parties that engage with the UvA on sustainability issues.  

The UvA Strategic Plan Inspiring Generations established Sustainable Prosperity as one of its four focus themes. It set up a Sustainable Prosperity Steering Group, which seized the key opportunity provided by the broad ambitions in the plan to establish an interdisciplinary platform on the sustainability theme. 

Sustainable Prosperity is defined in the Strategic Plan as ‘sustainable, climate-proof progress through a reduction in ecological footprint, behavioral change and innovations in materials and resources’. The Steering Group decided that research on sustainable prosperity should ‘help to steer human development towards a safe and just operating space for societies’. 

Multiple tranches of calls for grants will be open in the following years for interdisciplinary teams. In this way, the UvA is fulfilling its ambition from the Strategic Plan to innovate research and education through collaboration between disciplines. In 2022 and 2023 seed-funding was allocated to five interdisciplinary projects and two mid-size projects.

Read more about the research projects

The UvA has a large number of vibrant research groups and initiatives relating to sustainability research. USP does not replace such groups, but rather complement them and help them realize their ambitions by facilitating connections and synergies. 

For more information, see the tab Research Groups

USP will organize meetings, dialogues, colloquia, and more, on sustainability-related themes that involve and will engage researchers, lecturers and students from different disciplines and research groups. It also will set up internal communication systems to ensure that all those interested are informed on new UvA initiatives and projects. In particular, USP:

• Organizes meetings and communication between researchers from different disciplinary backgrounds 
• Matches research ideas and expertise with funding opportunities
• Advances and share methods to engage in joint interdisciplinary sustainability research
• Helps build partnerships with external stakeholders in sustainability research
• Creates an open access portal for UvA research output on sustainability

Leadership 
Peter van Tienderen (Chair) 
André Nollkaemper (Vice-Chair) 

Executive team 
Dylan Suijker (Community Manager) 
Elles Tukker (Communications Advisor)

Steering group 
Peter van Tienderen (Chair) 
Faculty of Science 
André Nollkaemper (Vice-Chair) 
Amsterdam Law School
Ans Kolk 
Faculty of Economics and Business 
Barbara Hogenboom 
Faculty of Humanities 
Mendel Giezen
Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences
Antonia Praetorius 
Faculty of Science 
Sjoerd Repping 
Amsterdam University Medical Centers (AMC)
Margaretha Wewerinke-Singh
Faculty of Law 
Cees Kleverlaan 
Academic Center for Dentistry Amsterdam (ACTA)