Contribute to our work

Our approach builds on working across disciplines and sectors in science, policy, business and beyond. We are not only a producer of scientific results and disseminator of knowledge – we are also a convener of change.

We have a long history of helping to navigate the unknown and bringing together people for change. We are looking for additional funding partners interested in helping us advance our mission and vision.

We have learnt that long-term flexible funding has proven critical for our productivity, creativity, and ability to take scientific risks, thereby breaking new ground in science and impact.

Principles for funded collaborations

• We develop novel and applied science and find ways to engage in change towards sustainability for all

• We establish collaborative relationships over multiple years, building diverse teams that create, share and engage others because this results in the best possible science

• We promote intellectual freedom because we have learnt that the free exchange of knowledge and ideas results in the most innovative science that contributes to change

• We value our scientific independence and credibility. This requires space to explore the questions we ask and the ways that we ask them.

Strategic focus

Our research is structured around a series of emerging research frontiers that can help ensure that all people and nature can live and develop on a planet under pressure:

1. Anthropocene dynamics and capacities – we explore what it means when humans rival natural forces in shaping every aspect of our planet

2. Conflict and collaboration in a hyperconnected world – we seek new insights into the interplay between conflict, collaboration, and sustainability, knowing that evolving conditions are embedded in social-ecological systems

3. Transformative futures – we engage with the systemic changes needed to address today's global challenges: climate change, nature loss, inequality, and technological disruptions.

4. Doing sustainability research – we focus on how to do inter- and transdisciplinary research that advances both theory and action, while facilitating and supporting solutions-oriented processes.

Our values

Collaborations require trust, experimentation, and personal relationships, all with one main purpose: to produce good sustainability science. Scientific rigor and integrity underpin all our work.

A trust-based creative working culture enables us to achieve impact. The questions we ask originate from our curiosity. When that curiosity is shared with partners, and we can explore new things together, we often find surprisingly new approaches to old problems.

Learning, experimentation and reflection are promoted in all our activities. Our science can influence action in the real world, in part because we have the time and freedom to explore novelty.

Diversity, inclusion, and care are principles championed across the organization. This basis for collaborative relationships makes it possible to engage in mutual learning and an exchange of ideas that may not yet be developed, in arenas that do not yet exist.