• Research in the Schools
  • Architecture and Building
  • Engineering
  • Information Technology
  • Life and Environmental Sciences
• Strategic Research Centres
  • Centre for Integrative Ecology
  • Centre for Biotechnology, Chemistry and Systems Biology
  • Molecular and Medical Research
• Faculty Research Clusters
  • Securing Cyberspace
  • Innovation Through Broadband
  • Environmental Sustainability
  • Sensing, Control and Diagnostics
  • Sustainable Infrastructure
  • Victorian Laboratory for Urban Ecologies
• Institute for Frontier Materials (IFM)
• Centre for Intelligent Systems Research (CISR)
• BioDeakin
• Research seminars
• Research highlights
• Information for students
• Information for staff
• Research news
• Research publications
• The Geoff Wilson Medal
• Deakin Research Services Division

Environmental Sustainability Faculty Research Cluster (ESFRC)

Vision

The Environmental Sustainability Faculty Research Cluster (ESFRC) is committed to undertaking high quality research that addresses issues of global significance in sustainability science and which facilitates the adoption of sustainability policy and practice. Its well-established transdisciplinary approach to research, involving industry, community and managers, will advance conceptual understanding of issues in sustainability as well as directly informing environmental decision-making.

Mission

Sustainability science has recently emerged as a new academic discipline that brings together scholarship and practice; global and local perspectives and disciplines across the natural and social sciences. The emergence of this Environmental Sustainability Faculty Research Cluster is a natural progression in developing an integrated approach to sustainability science by bringing together research activities around natural systems with social (human dimensions) research.
- Clark and Dickson 2003

Our mission is
To bridge the gap between science and society with a transdisciplinary research approach.

Figure 1. A four-way participatory stakeholder approach is used to ensure all stakeholders have the opportunity to contribute to research that will result in progress toward a sustainable future.
- Wallis et al. 2010

Sustainability science - our view on research

“Sustainability science is not yet an autonomous field or discipline, but rather a vibrant arena that is bringing together scholarship and practice, global and local perspectives from north and south, and disciplines across the natural and social sciences, engineering, and medicine” (Clark and Dickson 2003, p.8060). It focuses on the links between the environmental, economic and social dimensions of environmental science.

It is widely recognised at international, national and local levels that in order to achieve the goals of environmental sustainability, we need to understand:

• how environmental systems function across space and time
• how these systems are used and the environmental impacts of those uses
• how these systems are valued by people.

This reinforces the need for a transdisciplinary research approach.

Research Directions

The Environmental Sustainability Faculty Research Cluster will function as a research centre within the Faculty of Science and Technology producing high quality research addressing issues of global significance in sustainability science. It will build, coordinate and promote partnerships that will enhance outcomes in teaching and research, focusing on issues in the natural, social, built and political environments. Key research areas include:

Cluster Staff