Assessing the sustainability implications of research projects against the 17 UN sustainable development goals

Technology has an important role to play in the development of a sustainable society, and techni- cal research is fundamental to ensure the advancement of technologies that is required to achieve the needed progress in eco-efficiency and social performance of future technologies. Sustainability contribu- tions should thus be an important consideration in the development and assessment of technical research but how can we assess the sustainability implications of technical research projects? The paper presents a new methodology taking a life cycle perspective on the potential technological and societal changes resulting from research projects and assessing their sustainability implications against the United Na- tions’ 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs). It provides information about both positive and negative contributions to the SDGs and support identification of improvement potentials as input to the research project.