Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by United Nations Member States in 2015, provides a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future. Entering into the new decade, the sustainability of our planet remains severely challenged by numerous threats, ranging from natural disasters, climate change, pandemics, to inequality and unemployment, etc.

With less than 10 years left to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – which are at the heart of the 2030 Agenda – it is more important than ever for the global community to mobilise for collective resolve and accelerated action. With their unique advantages in generating knowledge, uniting stakeholders and enabling transformation, leading universities around the world should play an active and essential role in forging a sustainable future through dialogue, solidarity and collaboration.

On the occasion of the Virtual Forum on the Role of Universities in the 2030 Agenda held March 24, 2021, we as university leaders across different continents wish to reaffirm our commitment to the 2030 Agenda. We commit to the following elements of a shared vision:

Imbedding sustainability across our activities, operations, monitoring and evaluation. Through unwavering examples, we will foster and promote sustainable development on and off campus.

Enhancing competencies in SDGs by empowering our students, faculty and staff with the knowledge, skills, and motivation to understand and address the SDGs.

Supporting a wider spectrum of research work needed to address global challenges, including blue-sky discovery and transdisciplinary research, and to better inform policy-making.

Fostering innovative solutions for sustainable development by engaging multiple stakeholders, including government, civil society and the private sector.

Leveraging technology and upholding open science where appropriate to facilitate sustainable partnerships and context-specific, problem-solving collaborations across borders.

 1.Nikolaos G. Papaioannou, Rector, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
 2.Way Kuo, President, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
 3.Stuart Corbridge, Vice-Chancellor, Durham University, UK
 4.Eric Labaye, President, École Polytechnique, France
 5.Frank Baaijens, Rector Magnificus, Eindhoven University of Technology, the Netherlands
 6.Rik Van de Walle, Rector, Ghent University, Belgium
 7.Lawrence S. Bacow, President, Harvard University, USA
 8.Satoshi Nakano, President, Hitotsubashi University, Japan
 9.Kiyohiro Houkin, President, Hokkaido University, Japan
 10.Ping-kong Alexander Wai, President and Vice-Chancellor, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong, China
 11.Ebrahim Al-Hajri, President, Khalifa University of Science and Technology, United Arab Emirates
 12.Tony F Chan, President, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia
 13.Jin Taek CHUNG, President, Korea University, Korea
 14. Luc Sels, Rector, KU Leuven, Belgium
 15.Nagahiro Minato, President, Kyoto University, Japan
 16.Tatsuro Ishibashi, President, Kyushu University, Japan
 17.Leonard CHENG Kwok-Hon, President, Lingnan University, Hong Kong, China
 18.Victor A. Sadovnichy, Rector, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia
 19.Banchong Mahaisavariya, President, Mahidol University, Thailand
 20.Barnabas Nawangwe, Vice-Chancellor, Makerere University, Uganda
 21.Mikhail Pogosyan, Rector, Moscow Aviation Institute, Russia
 22.Seiichi Matsuo, President, Nagoya University, Japan
 23.Subra Suresh, President, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
 24.Tan Eng Chye, President, National University of Singapore, Singapore
 25.Tatsuo Ushiki, President, Niigata University, Japan
 26.Morton O. Schapiro, President, Northwestern University, USA
 27.HAO Ping, President, Peking University, China
 28.Andrei Rudskoi, Rector, Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University, Russia
 29.Ferruccio Resta, Rector, Politecnico di Milano, Italy
 30.Ulrich Rüdiger, Rector, RWTH Aachen University, Germany
 31.RYU Hong Lim, President, Seoul National University, Korea
 32.Wim de Villiers, Rector and Vice-Chancellor, Stellenbosch University, South Africa
 33.Ariel Porat, President, Tel Aviv University, Israel
 34.Rocky S. Tuan, Vice-Chancellor and President, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
 35.Asher Cohen, President, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
 36.Jin-Guang Teng, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China
 37.Wei Shyy, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, China
 38.Santa J. Ono, President and Vice-Chancellor, The University of British Columbia, Canada
 39.Anton Muscatelli, Principal and Vice-Chancellor, The University of Glasgow, UK
 40.Dejan Jaksic, Rector, The University of Novi Sad, Serbia
 41.Stephen Garton, Vice-Chancellor and Principal, The University of Sydney, Australia
 42.Amit Chakma, Vice-Chancellor, The University of Western Australia, Australia
 43.Hideo Ohno, President, Tohoku University, Japan
 44.Alejandro Gaviria Uribe, Rector, Universidad de los Andes, Colombia
 45.António Manuel da Cruz Serra, Rector, Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal
 46.Marcelo Knobel, Rector, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Brazil
 47.Joan Guàrdia Olmos, Rector, Universitat de Barcelona, Spain
 48.Datin Dr Anita B Z Abdul Aziz, Vice Chancellor, Universiti Brunei Darussalam, Brunei
 49.Dawn Freshwater, Vice-Chancellor, University of Auckland, New Zealand
 50.Andrew J Deeks, President, University College Dublin, Ireland
 51.Michael Spence, President and Provost, University College London, UK
 52.Bill Flanagan, President and Vice Chancellor, University of Alberta, Canada
 53.Margareth Hagen, Rector, University of Bergen, Norway
 54.Hugh Brady, President and Vice-Chancellor, University of Bristol, UK
 55.Gary May, Chancellor, University of California, Davis, USA
 56.Gene Block, Chancellor, University of California, Los Angeles, USA
 57.Mamokgethi Phakeng, Vice-Chancellor, University of Cape Town, South Africa
 58.Robert J. Jones, Chancellor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA
 59.Toyin Ogundipe, Vice-Chancellor, University of Lagos, Nigeria
 60.Simone Buitendijk, Vice-Chancellor, University of Leeds, UK
 61.Yonghua Song, Rector, University of Macau, Macau, China
 62.Svein Stølen, Rector, University of Oslo, Norway
 63.Jacques Frémont, President and Vice-Chancellor, University of Ottawa, Canada
 64.Meric Gertler, President, University of Toronto, Canada
 65.Heinz W. Engl, Rector, University of Vienna, Austria
 66.Ana Mari Cauce, President, University of Washington, USA
 67.Aiji Tanaka, President, Waseda University, Japan
 68.Peter Salovey, President, Yale University, USA
 69.Jiangfeng Du, President, Zhejiang University, China

The call remains open! If your university wishes to join in the statement, please contact Mr. TONG Jun, partnership manager, at tj@zju.edu.cn.