The United Nations has set up a global agenda - to guide the world toward sustainable development - with a focus on reducing poverty and inequality and promoting inclusion. This has come in the shape of policy directions like the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and UN-Habitat’s New Urban Agenda. These global agendas serve to influence the direction for much of future research, especially in the disciplines/areas of urban planning, architecture, construction management, urban governance, environmental management and community resilience. However, there is an ongoing debate among both academics and practitioners on translating global agendas into local contexts. There is also an increasing realisation of the need to promote an exchange of knowledge and sharing of best practices and experiences between Global North and Global South. Focusing on vital development scenarios that characterise the Global South, the Global South Nexus (GNS) was founded in April 2021 within the School of Design and the Built Environment (DBE). GSN aims to promote a series of advanced and alternative theses around the production and management of a sustainable built environment in the Global South. The Global South Nexus encourages global north-south research within Curtin and beyond, supported by an international advisory board. We promote debates on various approaches to - and theoretical positions on - north-south dichotomy. The nexus will generate north-south reality-based interdisciplinary knowledge to promote SDGs globally. We search for theories relevant to Global South ground realities that can inform practices to promote global sustainable development while shaping the built environment through effective planning, management and governance. The platform will search for solutions that enable good governance through effective policy and regulations, set appropriate codes and design criteria, and, most importantly, encourage emancipated voices and debates among global stakeholders of development across the Global North and South. KEY OBJECTIVES • Integrate SDGs into university teaching and research • Undertake exchange of knowledge and practice between the Global North and South • Foster research innovation in sustainable transformation in the Global South • Demonstrate DBE’s research commitment towards co-creating sustainable built environment