Abstract
Profound transformative change is needed to cope with the main global challenges posed to Humankind: lack of sustainability that points to climatic catastrophe and rising inequality that fragments societies. Arguably, a notion of Sustainable Human Development inspires the SDGs and can orient coordinated efforts of several actors at micro, meso and macro levels. One of such actors is the University, a fundamental site of knowledge production: linking it to the SDGs is the aim of several research projects undertaken by our group. Their main particularity is a two fold inspiration, theoretical and political, feeding directly in the policy research of our university. We discuss, through some examples of policy instruments, how the Universidad de la Repúblicain Uruguay builds pro-actively connections with diverse external actors with the aim of promoting transformative change.