A major challenge for higher education is to contribute to the transformation of the global society to a more sustainable and equitable one. Indeed, higher education institutions should play a significant role in promoting sustainable human development (SHD). Nevertheless, SHD is still far from being effectively integrated in the curricula.

These issues are particularly sensitive in technical universities. Engineers have the potential to deal with most of global challenges, creating more equitable wealth and well-being. SHD should therefore be fully recognized as an important component of both engineering degree courses and university policies.

Starting from this context, the purpose of this seminar is to share key findings of the European initiative “Global Dimension in Engineering Education – GDEE”. This initiative, that finalized in April 2015, promoted the integration of SHD as cross-cutting issue in teaching activities of technical universities, mainly i) by improving the competencies of academic staff through training materials and courses and ii) through staff engagement in a wide range of initiatives related to SHD.

Specifically, a study that analyses comparatively the research profile of two groups of university lecturers and researchers involved in the SHD academic activities will be presented. The work includes a bibliometric analysis of the scientific publications, and a characterization of common trends and similarities of the scientific production of this collective.