Introduction

Scientists concerned about the future of the planet have for more than a decade pointed out the urgent need for sustainability transformations (Clark 2001, Kates et al. 2001, Raskin et al. 2002, Schellnhuber et al. 2011, Weinstein et al. 2013). They recognized that such shifts require radical, systemic shifts in education, values and beliefs, patterns of social behavior, and multilevel governance and management regimes, and pleaded for fundamental changes in our economies and societies to achieve sustainability.

The university sector is critical to Egypt’s future. Universities educate our leaders and entrepreneurs of the future, create new ideas and knowledge, and earn much needed export income. Universities provide opportunities for students of all backgrounds to increase standards of living for themselves and future generations. Therefore, there is need for universities to forge new business models that are dynamic, modern and fit for the decades ahead, and significantly mainstream sustainability through incorporating new teaching and learning delivery mechanisms, a diffusion of channels to market, and stakeholder expectations for increased impact.

Sustainability transformations are fundamental changes paving their way towards sustainable well-being of nature and humans. To achieve these sustainability transformation, new approaches and methodologies of teaching and education at all levels must be developed in the field of sustainability science. Therefore, the proposed project will focus on research and education practices to be explored at Pharos university. Sustainability science needs fundamentals and applied knowledge components and commitments to moving such knowledge into actions across full range of scaled from local to global. The research and education at pharos university already provide the basics sciences of Sustainability and interrelated dimensions and therefore serve as organizational pillars for the scientific research and education which can  then be operationalized through various research programmes and projects towards sustainable development transformation.

Scholars and researchers are becoming increasingly interested in the processes that lead to transformations toward sustainability. This proposed project explores how system  thinking, and social-ecological systems, can contribute to existing studies of sustainability transformations. The project will be implemented in several phases through the next academic years.  There are two major points this that project considers: the claim that system thinking is useful for addressing sustainability transformations, and that the role of “management” in transformation processes has to be played by academics and  scholars. Second, highlighting the transdisciplinarity promising work that combines insights from different theoretical strands, a strategy that strengthens the understanding of sustainability transformations and sustainability science.  Sustainability science is an emerging field of research dealing with interactions between natural and social sciences. It leads to the emergence (or creation) of scientific cooperation and partnerships.

The potential of sustainability science in understanding and managing complex problems is based on inter- and transdisciplinary approaches. These integrate scientific knowledge across different disciplines and between experts, practitioners and citizens beyond academia.