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 toreaffirm 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.

In alphabetical order by institution:

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.Tony F Chan, President, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia
12.Jin Taek CHUNG, President, Korea University, Korea
13.Nagahiro Minato, President, Kyoto University, Japan
14.Tatsuro Ishibashi, President, Kyushu University, Japan
15.Leonard CHENG Kwok-Hon, President, Lingnan University, Hong Kong, China
16.Banchong Mahaisavariya, President, Mahidol University, Thailand
17.Barnabas Nawangwe, Vice-Chancellor, Makerere University, Uganda
18.Mikhail Pogosyan, Rector, Moscow Aviation Institute, Russia
19.Seiichi Matsuo, President, Nagoya University, Japan
20.Subra Suresh, President, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
21.Tan Eng Chye, President, National University of Singapore, Singapore
22.Morton O. Schapiro, President, Northwestern University, USA
23.HAO Ping, President, Peking University, China
24.Andrei Rudskoi, Rector, Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University, Russia
25.Ferruccio Resta, Rector, Politecnico di Milano, Italy
26.Wim de Villiers, Rector and Vice-Chancellor, Stellenbosch University, South Africa
27.Ariel Porat, President, Tel Aviv University, Israel
28.Rocky S. Tuan, Vice-Chancellor and President, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
29.Asher Cohen, President, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
30.Jin-Guang Teng, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China
31.Wei Shyy, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, China
32.Santa J. Ono, President and Vice-Chancellor, The University of British Columbia, Canada
33.Dejan Jaksic, Rector, The University of Novi Sad, Serbia
34.Stephen Garton, Vice-Chancellor and Principal, The University of Sydney, Australia
35.Amit Chakma, Vice-Chancellor, The University of Western Australia, Australia
36.Hideo Ohno, President, Tohoku University, Japan
37.Alejandro Gaviria Uribe, Rector, Universidad de los Andes, Colombia
38.António Manuel da Cruz Serra, Rector, Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal
39.Marcelo Knobel, Rector, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Brazil
40.Datin Dr Anita B Z Abdul Aziz, Vice Chancellor, Universiti Brunei Darussalam, Brunei
41.Andrew J Deeks, President, University College Dublin, Ireland
42.Michael Spence, President and Provost, University College London, UK
43.Bill Flanagan, President and Vice Chancellor, University of Alberta, Canada
44.Margareth Hagen, Rector, University of Bergen, Norway
45.Hugh Brady, President and Vice-Chancellor, University of Bristol, UK
46.Gary May, Chancellor, University of California, Davis, USA
47.Mamokgethi Phakeng, Vice-Chancellor, University of Cape Town, South Africa
48.Robert J. Jones, Chancellor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA
49.Toyin Ogundipe, Vice-Chancellor, University of Lagos, Nigeria
50.Yonghua Song, Rector, University of Macau, Macau, China
51.Svein Stølen, Rector, University of Oslo, Norway
52.Jacques Frémont, President and Vice-Chancellor, University of Ottawa, Canada
53.Meric Gertler, President, University of Toronto, Canada
54.Heinz W. Engl, Rector, University of Vienna, Austria
55.Ana Mari Cauce, President, University of Washington, USA
56.Aiji Tanaka, President, Waseda University, Japan
57.Peter Salovey, President, Yale University, USA
58.WU Zhaohui, President, Zhejiang University, China
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