The Third Generation Project (TGP), an international think tank co-founded by a University of Aberdeen academic, has been recognised by the 2024 MacJannet Prize for Global Citizenship.
The Prize, which is organised through the Taillores Network, recognises exceptional student civic engagement in projects that promote action around the principles of the Talloires Declaration, which recommends steps to elevate the civic engagement of universities around the world.
Created in 2016 by Dr Bennett Collins, lecturer in Energy, Climate and Environmental Politics at the School of Social Sciences, alongside Professor Ali Watson at the University of St Andrews, TGP focuses on collaborating with marginalised communities to co-create materials and programs that address the impact of climate change.
Stemming from an action-research philosophy developed by Dr Collins and Professor Watson, the work of the Project includes the community as participants and direct beneficiaries of social change.
TGP is based in the School of International Relations at the University of St Andrews.
“The Project was founded to address gaps in both what and how we research and educate on the impact of climate change,” explained Dr Collins.
“In 2020, the Norwegian Institute for International Affairs and the University of Sussex found that the natural and technical sciences received 770% more funding than the social sciences and humanities combined in climate-related research. We can see that this funding bias skews the way we understand the causes of climate change and its solutions.
“TGP has helped educate students, teachers, pupils, institutions and the wider public about the wider conversation that needs to be had around the causes and impacts of climate change.
“Removing colonialism, for example, from this conversation, gives the illusion that we only need to undergo a technical transition to renewable energy, when in fact, we require a social and political transition to much more equitable global and local communities.
“What is more, we have been actively training students looking to become more committed researchers in collaborative methodologies that integrate communities most impacted by climate injustice into project design and impact.
Dr Collins remains an active member of the management team for TGP.
“Our fellow awardees makes this recognition significant,” he added. “The projects awarded include working with Palestinian young people and communities, fighting the ongoing brain drain from Ukraine, collaborating with incarcerated and formerly incarcerated peoples to fight racial justice. This only validates that our approach to climate research and education is routed in a wider movement for justice.”