There are some well established and internationally recognised pockets of sustainability research at Aston, with the most prestigious being the Aston Bio-Energy Research Group (BERG). Elsewhere within the School of Engineering and Applied Science, under the umbrella of the Sustainable Environment Research Group, there are a wide range of activities, covering such diverse fields as water resource management, remote sensing and GIS, biodiversity and business, renewable energy and sustainable procurement.
Individuals are working on aspects of sustainability within both the Aston Business School and the School of Languages and Social Sciences. In the former, the Operations and Information Management and the Finance, Accounting and Law Research Groups in particular both publish in the field, as does the Centre for Research in Social and Political Sciences(CRSPS) in the latter.
A First Sustainability Research Seminar to explore the potential for collaboration and interdisciplinary projects was held on 3rd July 2008. This provided a platform for sharing research activities, an exchange of ideas and for networking across the University. This was followed up by a Second Sustainability Research Seminar on 22nd September 2008, where a small number of delegates, who could not contribute to first Seminar, spoke about their activities.
As a result of these initial activities, the creation of an on-going series of Aston Sustainability Colloquia has been proposed. Further details can be found here, and the first Colloquium will be held in the Autumn of 2009 on the topic of Sustainability and Transport.
It is recognised that long standing research careers can not, and should not, change overnight. However, from these initiatives, the seeds have been sown for an umbrella group, that over time should facilitate the growth of a range of interdisciplinary research projects built around specific sustainability themes
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