Science, Environment and Development Group

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Collaborative Activities

Current Collaborations

Completed Collaborations

Current Collaborations

Knowledge Systems for Sustainable Development <http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/kssd>
The Knowledge Systems for Sustainable Development (KSSD) Project seeks to understand and promote the design of effective systems to harness research-based knowledge for sustainability. We view "knowledge systems" as consisting of networks of linked actors, organizations, and objects that perform a number of knowledge-related functions (including research, innovation, development, demonstration, deployment, and adoption) involved in linking knowledge and know-how with action. In particular, KSSD’s research asks: What are the characteristics of effective knowledge systems? How does the effectiveness of such systems depend on social and environmental contexts? How can knowledge systems be made more effective in specific circumstances?
 
Boundary Organizations for Integrating Knowledge and Action in International Development <http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/sed/borgs>
Sustainable development is increasingly understood to be a knowledge-intensive process, requiring extraordinary improvements in the mobilization of science and technology. This project asks how the choice of institutions for linking practitioners and experts influences knowledge production and its outcomes in the context of a central challenge of sustainability: improving the management of natural resources. In particular, the project seeks to apply, evaluate and extend existing scholarly findings on "boundary organizations" as institutional means for facilitating the collaboration among researchers and users in the production of knowledge for natural resource management in the developing world.

Institutional Innovations for Linking Knowledge with Action in Global Health <http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/sed/health>
The Institutional Innovations for Linking Knowledge with Action in Global Health Project seeks to understand the revolution in unconventional public-private partnerships that has begun to link knowledge with action – linking what medical science knows with what health systems deliver – with regard to catastrophically deadly diseases of the developing world.
 
Incentives and Behavior in Natural Resource Management: Explorations with the CGIAR system <http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/sed/incentives.htm>
This research investigates institutional interventions that alter incentives and ultimately behavior around natural resources in developing countries. By building on ongoing projects within the CGIAR system, the research will bring analytical methods from the social sciences to bear on problems of individual and community decision-making around natural resource management in developing countries.

Sustainability Science and Technology: Linking Knowledge with Action <http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/sed/sustsci>
The Sustainability Science and Technology Project is developing partnerships and dialogues to link sectors and regions in science-based, action-oriented initiatives to promote sustainability. The project contains two closely related elements: a set of focused Partnership Team efforts to link knowledge with action in emerging areas of sustainability science (specifically, the integrated management of production/consumption systems and enhancing resilience and reducing vulnerability of coupled human-environment systems), and a larger International Dialogue on Science and Practice in Sustainable Development to catalyze significant increases in the quantity and effectiveness of knowledge/action partnerships for sustainable development.
 
Institutional Design of Payments for Ecosystem Services <http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/sed/pes.htm>
This project seeks to understand how recent innovations in the governance of natural resource systems can be modified so as to promote outcomes that are not just effective and efficient, but also equitable. It focuses on experiments with "payments for environmental services" that are being introduced around the world as an alternative to the regulatory approaches. [Project Overview]
 
Initiative on Science and Technology for Sustainability <http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/sustsci/ists/>
SED has played a central role in the Initiative on Science and Technology for Sustainability (ISTS), an international effort that seeks to expand and deepen the research and development agenda of science and technology for sustainability as well as strengthen the infrastructure and capacity for conducting and applying sustainability science. The Initiative's electronic "Forum" facilitates information exchange and discussion within a rapidly growing global community of scholars and practitioners. [Key publication]
 
Environmental Indicators <http://www.heinzctr.org/ecosystems/, http://keyindicators.org>
The State of the Nation’s Ecosystems (Heinz Center for Science, Economics and the Environment) is an ongoing experiment in designing an institution to provide periodic, scientifically sound, nonpartisan reporting on the condition and use of the nation’s lands, waters, and living resources. Bill Clark chairs the Design Group of this project; he also serves as a member of the Steering Committee for the Key National Indicators Initiative (U.S. National Academies), a nationwide effort to produce an integrated set of high-level indicators on economy, society, and the environment. [Key publication | Congressional testimony| Video introduction by Bill Clark]

National Academies' Roundtable on Science and Technology for Sustainability <http://sustainability.nationalacademies.org/roundtable.shtml>
The U.S. National Academies' Roundtable on Science and Technology for Sustainability provides a forum for dialogue among leaders from the communities of research, government, business, and environmental protection with a view toward strengthening strategic connections between scientific research, technological development, and action-oriented efforts to achieve sustainable improvements in human well-being. Bill Clark is a member of the Roundtable and chairs its Task Force on Linking Knowledge to Action for Sustainable Development.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences <http://www.pnas.org/misc/sustainability.shtml>
PNAS is one of the world's most-cited multidisciplinary scientific serials. Its new Sustainability Science section is an interdisciplinary venue for publishing research on sustainability science, an area encompassing fundamental research on interactions between human and environmental systems, as well as sustainability challenges relating to agriculture, biodiversity, cities, energy, health, and water. Bill Clark serves as Associate Editor for PNAS with special responsibilities for the sustainability science section. [Poster announcing new section and calling for sustainability science papers]
Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development Magazine <http://www.heldref.org/env.php>
Environment is a monthly, peer-reviewed magazine that brings science to bear on complex policy issues arising from the interactions between environment and development. Bill Clark serves as an Executive Editor of this magazine.
 
Annual Review of Environment and Resources <http://arjournals.annualreviews.org/loi/energy>
This review journal focuses on the scientific, policy, and technological issues related to Earth's life support systems, sectors of human activities interacting with the environment, and human dimensions of environmental change and management. Bill Clark is on the journal's editorial board. [Key publication]
 
International Union of Biological Sciences' 2007 Symposium - Biological Sciences for the 21st Century: Meeting the Challenges of Sustainable Development in an Era of Global Change <http://www7.nationalacademies.org/IUBS/>
To be held 9-13 May 2007 in Washington, D.C., the International Union of Biological Sciences 2007 Symposium on "Biological Sciences for the 21st Century: Meeting the Challenges of Sustainable Development in an Era of Global Change" will explore how developments in biological or life sciences research might be harnessed to address worldwide challenges of promoting a transition toward sustainability in an era of global change. The symposium will feature introductory overviews exploring five key research frontiers in the biological sciences: biocomplexity, informatics, genomics, knowledge integration, and institutional capacity - and how they can contribute to sustainability solutions. Sessions will focus on major challenges of sustainable development: ecosystem services, food security, population health, and sustainable energy. The symposium will conclude with a panel discussion by leaders in science policy discussing the opportunities explored in previous sessions.Professor Clark chairs the Science Advisory Committee for the Symposium.

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Completed Collaborations

Sustainability Science (SUST) <http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/sust/>
Our work in sustainability science seeks to advance understanding relevant to the sustainable development of coupled human-environment systems. Research conducted through this project (2000-2003) characterized a "sustainability transition;" developed a framework for analyzing the vulnerability of human-environment systems; and analyzed the properties of knowledge systems that make them effective in harnessing science and technology to support sustainable development. [Key publication]
 
National Academies' Coordinating Committee on Global Change <http://dels.nas.edu/ccgc/>
Bill Clark served on the U.S. National Academies' Coordinating Committee on Global Change which operated as a facilitator and point of contact among national and international bodies concerned with multidisciplinary issues of global change science, technology, and policy.
 
National Academies' A Transition Toward Sustainability <http://www.nap.edu/books/0309067839/html/>
Bill Clark co-chaired this effort by the U.S. National Academies' Board on Sustainable Development. In its report Our Common Journey: A Transition Toward Sustainability, the Board drew strategic connections between scientific research, technological development, and societies' efforts to achieve environmentally sustainable improvements in human well being. [Key publication]
 
Global Environmental Assessment <http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/gea>
The Global Environmental Assessment (GEA) Project was an international, interdisciplinary effort directed at understanding the role of organized efforts to bring scientific information to bear in shaping social responses to large-scale global environmental change. [Key publications]
 
Learning to Manage Global Environmental Risks <http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/sl>
The Social Learning Group produced a comparative history of responses to climate change, stratospheric ozone depletion, and acid rain that documents how nine countries, the European Union, and international institutions interacted to move these issues from the scientist’s bench to the high table of international diplomacy. [Key publication | Video introduction by Bill Clark]
 
Framing Development Challenges in Thailand: An Experiment Using Video to Support Professional Training in Development
This project is an experiment in using asynchronous video technology to bring voices of stakeholders in the developing world into the classroom as part of an internationalization of the case method. Students engage in a dialogue with practitioners and villagers from rural communities in Thailand.

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