Addressing the biodiversity crisis by uniting research, education, and action
We enable research for use-inspired solutions.
Our research provides insights that transform the way the world values, manages and thinks about biodiversity. We empower stakeholders to engage in informed action, based on the knowledge that shared challenges are best solved when people work together.
By bringing together producers and consumers of knowledge, we pursue solutions that governments, communities, and the private sector can use to make informed, science-based decisions that balance environmental and social goals.
Biodiversity is the foundation for our economy and wellbeing.
Our research priorities are interconnected and synergistic. We embrace multi-disciplinary approaches that assess how decisions impact biodiversity and how investment in conservation can support biodiversity goals.
Our research centers biodiversity in decision-making in order to improve the effectiveness of conservation science, all while fostering the next generation of conservation professionals. We achieve outcomes through a co-production lens, bringing together conservation knowledge with decision science.
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Our approach
Center biodiversity in decision-making around the world
We focus our work on producing actionable science for society at large. We focus on co-developing knowledge to support decision-making for real-world biodiversity impact.
Improve the effectiveness of conservation science
We are curious and honest about the process and impact of our research and science. We study ourselves, our assumptions, and our collaborations to ensure we are reflexive about our scholarship and the field of conservation science as a whole.
Foster a new generation of conservation professionals
We shift away from siloed academic tradition, embrace interdisciplinary teams focused on benefits to nature and society, and operate as a boundary organization, bringing conservation thinking to other disciplines and domains.
How we work
Decision science
We continually refine our research methods to better achieve our goals. We work with partners to identify conservation decision needs and possible solutions, and then use data and evidence to identify the possible outcomes of alternative solutions.
Our approach embraces key elements of Structured Decision-Making (SDM):
- Objective: We access the biodiversity goals a project aims to achieve.
- Alternatives: We draw on knowledge of partnerships to identify potential solutions.
- Evidence: We use evidence synthesis to identify how solutions support objectives.
- Solutions: We use decision tools to identify the best solution.
- Consequences: We study outcomes of implemented solutions in relation to objectives.
- Update: We update the approach as we learn.