Putting impact first: how long-term charitable partnerships help strengthen science and learning

Author: Joyce Lorigan

Chief Marketing Officer, Global Head of Corporate Affairs and member of the Springer Nature Executive Team

“SDG 17 is about partnership for the goals. And sort of the core principle, the core intuition, is that collaboration is needed to deal with complexity.” – Dr Kate Roll, UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose. 

The importance of partnership for sustainable development was covered in a recent Working Scientist podcast series from Nature Careers called ‘How to save humanity in 17 goals’. The sustainable development goals, or SDGs, are an important focus for us at Springer Nature, when we consider the positive impact we can have in disseminating research that can enable global progress.  

Our most important contribution is through our activity as a publisher. However, we go beyond that to support the communities we serve more directly. This includes a regular and carefully considered programme of charitable donations, giving over €3.5 million across multiple projects from 2022-2025. One principle has guided Springer Nature’s charitable support over the past three years: impact matters most when it is sustained, thoughtful and rooted in partnership. 

While there have been occasions that called for specific responses or one-off donations, such as our efforts to help colleagues and partners following the devastating Hurricane Melissa in Jamaica, or our focused support for researchers impacted by the war in Ukraine, our approach has focused on backing initiatives that strengthen the wider research and learning ecosystem over time. This means asking not only where help is needed, but how it can contribute to lasting outcomes for communities connected to science, education and advancing knowledge.

Strengthening science communication and trust 

Public trust in science depends not just on the quality of research, but on how well it is communicated and understood. For that reason, a core focus of our charitable activity has been supporting organisations that improve science communication and public understanding of research. This includes backing the global network of science media centres and the Springer Nature Fellowship for Advancing Science Journalism in Africa and the Middle East, offered in collaboration with the Knight Science Journalism (KSJ) Program at MIT, now in its third year. 

These initiatives play an important role in helping reliable evidence reach broader audiences, tackling misinformation, and supporting informed decision-making. In a world where scientific expertise is increasingly contested, strengthening these channels is a vital part of sustaining trust in research. 

Widening participation in research and learning 

Another priority has been widening participation in education and research. 

Through a mix of global programmes and locally led initiatives, our support has aimed to help people engage with learning, develop skills, and contribute to research. We’re proud to have supported over 70 students and early career researchers to take their first steps in research careers via programmes such as In2Research in the UK, the Deutschlandstipendium in Germany, and the Innovation in Cancer Research programme in the US.  

Looking to younger students, around 300 primary school aged children have attended the Civitas Saturday School in our London offices for extra support with maths and English since 2014. The school, which runs every weekend of term time, aims to help local children who have been identified as working below their expected level to make extra progress and thrive.   

Partnerships that strengthen research ecosystems in lower-income countries are also a focus. We are particularly proud of our association with Research4Life, which this year celebrates its 25th anniversary of enabling access to research for those in low-income countries, and which has evolved to build capability to support researchers around the global to contribute as authors, peer reviewers and editors.   

Access to knowledge remains uneven, but sustained investment in participation and capacity-building helps create the conditions for more inclusive and resilient research systems.

A partnership-led and principled approach

Since 2021, Springer Nature’s charitable giving has been guided by a clear framework and consistent governance. This helps ensure our support is strategic, transparent and aligned with our purpose of advancing discovery, learning and progress. 

Working with established and trusted partners allows us to contribute expertise as well as financial support, and to focus on outcomes rather than visibility.  It also helps ensure that our charitable activity complements, rather than substitutes for or hinders, the responsibilities and efforts of others across the research ecosystem or further afield.

Looking ahead

The challenges facing science, education and society are not short-term, and neither are the solutions. As Springer Nature looks ahead, our charitable support will continue to prioritise long-term impact, trusted partnerships and initiatives that help knowledge to be discovered, trusted and used. 

By keeping impact at the centre, we aim to contribute in ways that matter to research communities and learners, today and in the years to come.