About Us

The Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience (CAWR) is driving innovative, transdisciplinary research on the understanding and development of resilient food and water systems internationally.

Food and water security is increasingly threatened by factors such as climate and environmental change, loss of biodiversity, conflict and market volatility. New knowledge, policies and technologies are needed to develop systems that are more resilient to change and which ensure the health of our food and water supplies. Resilient systems are better able to withstand and recover from stresses caused by short-term change or long-term events, including natural processes like flooding, or human impacts such as war or water pollution incidents.

Through its focus on food and water, the centre’s research develops and integrates new knowledge in social, agroecological, hydrological and environmental processes, as well as the pivotal role that communities play in developing resilience. Unique to this Centre is the incorporation of citizen-generated knowledge - the participation of farmers, water users and other citizens in transdisciplinary research, using holistic approaches which cross many disciplinary boundaries.

CAWR also aims to advance resilience science through creative work on a new generation of key issues linked to the governance of food systems, hydrological change, urban agriculture and water, biodiversity, Stabilisation, river processes, water quality and emerging pollutants.

The centre is conducting research in the following themes:

• Resilient Food and Water Systems in Practice
• Fundamental Processes and Resilience
• Community Self-Organisation for Resilience
• Policies and Institutions to Enable Resilient Food and Water Systems
• Peoples' Knowledge

Download our brochure for more information on our work.

Our Team

We have a large and growing international team of researchers who bring expertise and wide ranging experiences to CAWR. This multidisciplinary team is further strengthened by our association with leading professionals in the Global arena by virtue of their links to CAWR as Honorary Research Fellows and Associates. Through our well-connected team, we have strong links with other academic institutions and organisations to which many of the team act as Advisers.

Our Leadership