Sustainability issues are at the forefront of scientific enquiry, academic research and wider social concern. It is widely acknowledged that addressing sustainability requires an interdisciplinary approach as well long-term stakeholder collaboration in the form of partnerships between governments, the private sector and civil society. To this end, CSEAR and Charles University undertook a joint initiative in order to bring together researchers that focus on sustainability related issues in different organisational sectors. In particular, the initiative brought together researchers from CSEAR who have both a private and public sector focus (including the areas of ESG reporting and disclosure, CSR governance and management) with researchers from Charles University who have a public sector focus (in the areas of public policy, public administration and procurement).

As part of this joint initiative, three online workshops were organised. The first workshop, “Organizing for the Future: Accountability in the Public and Private Sector”,  was hosted in March 2024 and featured two speakers: Jan Bebbington and Nicole Darnall. In this workshop, Jan and Nicole spoke about the common theme of ‘accountability’ and outlined salient developments in the regulation of accounting, disclosure and reporting.

The second workshop,  “Organizing for the Future: Research Impact – using research to make beneficial change in the world beyond academia”,  was hosted in May 2024 and focused on the issues researchers face when engaging with policy makers and practitioners. Speakers at this workshop included Michal Plaček (Department of Public and Social Policy, Charles University), Martin Brooks (Head of Research Impact, University of St. Andrews), Hubert Topinka and Jiří Valach (both from the Centre for Knowledge and Technology Transfer, Charles University).

The third workshop, “Organizing for the Future: Application Of Quantitative And Qualitative Methods For Sustainability Research”, was hosted in June 2024 and featured two speakers: Prof. Charles H. Cho and Dr Jordi Rosell. Both Charles and Jordi discussed the relative advantages and limitations of quantitative and qualitative approaches to sustainability research, along with a discussion and reflection on the common issues researchers face when undertaking sustainability research.

The initiative was led by John Ferguson (CSEAR, University of St Andrews) and Michal Plaček (Department of Public and Social Policy, Charles University) and was supported by a joint seed funding scheme between the University of St Andrews and Charles University.

A full playlist of the event can be found here.