2020.04.15

On Thursday, April 2, 2020, Nagaoka University of Technology participated in the first of UNAI SDG Hub webinar series held by the United Nations, calling for 17 SDG hub universities (*1). The webinar is held in an effort to foster more regular communication and interaction between and among officials from United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI) and UNAI SDG Hubs.

As an initial webinar meeting, officials from UNAI headquarters and representatives from 13 SDG hub universities participated to the first meeting. The webinar kicked off with introduction of the hubs to one another and to the UNAI Staff, then results of the survey, which was requested to the hubs in advance, were presented by Dr. Omar, Public Information Officer form UANI. Afterwards, the topic shifted to the COVID-19 pandemic in terms of educational system from the viewpoint of SDGs on how we, as an academic community, can support this global critical situation. Active discussions continued in light of SDGs online learning system and how we can share SDGs good practices and experience. At last, the participants exchanged views on how the hubs can boost communication and interaction with all the hubs as well as how UNAI can provide support to strengthen collaboration between the hubs from this point onward.

The webinar meeting was a valuable opportunity to share information and exchange opinions through communications with other hub universities. The webinars are scheduled throughout the year. With the shared goal of ending the COVID-19 pandemic, also approaching to achieve the SDGs, we would like to work together with UNAI members and the hub universities around the world to promote further SDGs activities through the coordination of each respective strengths.

(*1) SDG Hub University:

In October 2018, UNAI announced a total of 17 universities to be the each goal of SDG hubs from among the UNAI member universities. NUT was appointed to a UNAI Hub for SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure) to lead the world as an exemplar of an innovative approach to SDGs. NUT is the only one who was appointed from East Asia including Japan. The terms of service is for 3 years. https://www.nagaokaut.ac.jp/e/topics/201810/181029.html

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