Achieving SDGs in ERUA Regions

To establish a reliable knowledge base and understand the current status of regions in relation to the 2030 Agenda a pilot effort of ERUA regions SDGs indicators was made. Leveraging data from various organizations is key to achieving this, and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) tool proves instrumental in measuring the distance of our regions toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Achieving SDGs in ERUA Regions enables us to effectively implement the project’s objectives by assessing the strengths and weaknesses of each region where the Universities are located, given that different regions exhibit varying performances across the SDGs.

Regions’ SDGs achievements in detail

The indicators used for the ERUA knowledge platforms are based on the EU SDG indicator set (Eurostat, 2023) and the indicators provided by the European Commission’s website and are used to monitor progress towards achieving sustainable development in the EU. In the context of achieving the SDGs within the EU, the EU SDG indicator set is revised annually to allow for the incorporation of new data from new data sources and to relate to updated EU policy priorities.

In the following illustrations you can find a more detailed view of the SDGs indicators regarding each ERUA region. The figures portray the scores of SDGs in national and regional level providing a comparison among regions and their countries. However, a notable challenge encountered during data collection – the scarcity of data at the NUTS 2 level.

The main challenge that the research team encountered during data collection was the lack of data at NUTS 2 level. Although EUROSTAT provides a plethora of indicators at national level, statistical data at regional level is limited. Therefore, the knowledge base does not cover all sustainable development objectives. Nevertheless, the work carried out by the University of the Aegean can be used as a pilot effort, which sets the basis for the creation of a more complete knowledge base during the implementation of ERUA 2. As the Alliance will be expanded with more partners, there will be an opportunity to collect data from all participating Universities. Moreover, in addition to the use of EUROSTAT data, new indicators related to the 17 SDGs will be created, whose data will be (also) sought from National Institutions of the ERUA 2 countries (localization of indicators).