Our approach

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Stuart White: ISF has a vision to make the world a better place. Part of that is through our mission, which is to create change towards sustainable futures.

Damien Giurco: We do this by partnering with government, industry and the community to engage in transdisciplinary research around complex challenge, that can help us deliver insights that create impact.

Dani Alexander: Sustainability really comes down to being able to live not at the expense of future generations, and hopefully putting them in a better position than we have been in.

Stuart White: Communities are in peril, so we need to ensure that we keep improving sustainability, to create change towards sustainable futures in everything we do, whether it’s as individuals, as societies, as communities, but also as researchers.

Dani Alexander: We’re lucky enough to be an independent research unit within a university, and that’s really core, I think, to the work that we do, that we are independent.

Damien Giurco: And the thing that we do uniquely is not only understand models and visions of what needs to happen, but think practically, ‘How can we work together with government and industry to make it happen in practice?’.

Dani Alexander: And we work directly with them, rather than at arm’s length so that we can see, I guess, the concept from development, all the way to implementation and, hopefully, to positive impact.

Stuart White: That’s why all our researchers have to think and operate in a completely transdisciplinary way. Because that’s how the problems of the world present themselves to us.

Dani Alexander: And it does probably come down to passion; everyone that works here at ISF is passionate about what they do and that really comes out any time you talk to them, but it’s also inclusive. And it’s just such a nice environment to be part of.

/ENDS

We’re transdisciplinary

We take a uniquely transdisciplinary approach that brings together multiple perspectives, skillsets, methods and tools in our quest to find solutions. We’re large enough to provide a diversity of research skills that match the needs of each and every project and small enough to deliver personalised outcomes.

Read more about our transdisciplinary research

We focus on sustainability transformations

Achieving a sustainable relationship between people and planet requires a transformative response involving profound, systemic changes that reach across social, cultural, political, economic and technical domains. ISF’s applied expertise in systems thinking, participatory governance and capacity building allows us to support clients in navigating and facilitating change within a complex and uncertain context.

Discover our approach to sustainability transformations

We are committed to the United Nations' goals for sustainability

ISF's vision is strongly aligned with the United Nations' 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and all of our work is mapped against them using an innovative tool we developed for this purpose.  

 Learn more about the SDGs and how we work towards meeting them

We’re collaborative

Change cannot be driven by a single person or group. We take a collaborative approach to our research and consulting that brings all the critical voices to the table.

We’re rigorous

As a university research centre, we pride ourselves on delivering rigorous, independent and ethical research that sets a benchmark for quality among our academic peers. We apply the same principles to our consultancy work, ensuring that our clients – and projects – benefit from our academic expertise.

We’re solutions-focused

We produce creative and disruptive solutions in partnership with government, industry and community clients. We challenge ourselves to begin at the end – to identify aspirational, practical and adaptable outcomes that drive meaningful change and initiate the steps to achieve them.

We build capacity as we go

We’re committed to the co-production of knowledge. We design and deliver projects in partnership with our clients and invest heavily in building their internal capacity through the translation of our knowledge, skills and experience. We strive to embed our projects with mutual and transformative learning experiences.