ILWS - Institute of Land, Water and Society
Research Principles
ILWS, with its team of ecological, social and economic scientists is well positioned to provide an integrated approach to research in support of natural resource management and regional community sustainability.
Integration involves the management of people's impacts on natural resources using relevant, holistic, systematic and comprehensive approaches. It presents exciting challenges for researchers. The first challenge is deciding when to undertake multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary or trans-disciplinary research and ensure that the outcomes have impact and support social and ecological sustainability.
Another challenge is to embrace the knowledge and value systems of stakeholders in rural communities, government agencies, and industry sectors with a focus on the information needs of local and indigenous communities, and awareness of gender and wider social equity.
The principles that guide our researchers as they embrace these challenges are:
- working from sound disciplinary bases,
- focussing on problem definition and impact paths,
- taking action, despite uncertainty and knowledge gaps,
- investing in relationship building, and
- being reflective and community-orientated.
We will produce quality outputs and communicate with stakeholders to ensure that the outcomes of our research have impact and support the social and ecological sustainability of rural and eco-agricultural landscapes.