Aims

Research, training, reflection and collaborations

The topic of Sustainability as a complex and controversial theme requires a multifarious approach encompassing a range of methods and approaches to knowledge creation: from the rigorous and specialist scientific inquiry undertaken in specific disciplinary fields to the application of cross-cutting approaches which are suited to capture the systemic dimension of problems.

The integration and growth of knowledge about the natural, social and economical systems can thus be derived from the shared work of scientists holding a variety of disciplinary competences but also from the interaction between analytical approaches and qualitative, reflective styles.
In this view, the real strength of IRIS is the perception of having much to learn from one another and no single point of view can be considered sufficient, or a priori superior, or on the contrary, not deemed to be relevant.
The presence of experts in Economics, Physics, Biology, Sociology, Linguistics, Natural Sciences and Didactics of Natural Sciences allows for the pursuit of an important goal: bringing together a variety of different competences and approaches and to initiate dialogue between spheres of knowledge that rarely dare to talk to one another or hardly ever have the tools for understanding each other.

When dialogue occurs it is possible to devise conceptual tools for the study of topics related to Sustainability and it is also possible to develop educational approaches and professional opportunities founded upon the idea of human beings as conscious and reflexive systems, who are able to observe themselves and their own evolution. As such, a humanity so developed is also able to produce new models of relationships between the socio-ecological systems and economic systems in which we live.
In pursuing such aims, IRIS is keen to promote and sustain collaborations with a number of institutions and associations and particularly those that are involved in research and practical applications informed by a sustainability agenda, at local, national and international levels.

Besides, it is also a goal of IRIS to draw upon the resources that are available both within and outwit the University to interface between the world of study and the world of work, including education and training in schools, by means of involving students, doctoral researchers and teachers.

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