The STEPS Centre carries out interdisciplinary research projects and policy engagement activities with partners in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe.

Bringing social and natural scientists together across development studies and science and technology studies, we work in and across the areas of food/agriculture, health/disease, water/sanitation and energy/climate change to generate new thinking and practical solutions.

Rapid environmental and social changes – such as climate change, population explosion, urbanisation and globalised economics – are posing urgent practical, moral and political challenges across the globe. Consequently the core development challenges of alleviating poverty and inequity are increasingly complex.

Our work looks at how pathways to sustainability – linking environmental integrity with social justice – can be built in today’s complex, dynamic world.

For instance, how might African farmers meet their needs in the context of climate change? How can we understand and address emergent epidemic diseases? And how might poor people access water in the expanding fringes of Asia’s megacities?

To help deal with these questions we have developed a novel pathways approach as a guide to thinking and action around emerging sustainability challenges.