Project team
The Enabling Resilience Investment approach is a collaboration between CSIRO and Value Advisory Partners (VAP). Our team works in an ethical, collaborative way, forming partnerships with stakeholders to co-design and co-learn about how to move into the emergent, disrupted future.
CSIRO team
Russ Wise leads the Enabling Resilience Investment (ERI) initiative, which focuses on building resilience and adaptive capacity in the face of rapid environmental and technological changes. Russ‘s research focuses on the economic benefits of resilient natural, social and built infrastructure and services, emphasising the importance of proactive place-based planning to mitigate the impacts of natural hazards such as bushfires and floods. Russ has also been involved in enhancing risk, economic and investment assessment and management processes and methods to support resilience and adaptation. Examples of this include developing innovative approaches to robust decision making under uncertainty such adaptive pathways and working closely with communities, businesses and governments to understand and address systemic barriers to resilience investment.
Paul Box operates at the interface of science and policy, ensuring that scientific insights inform strategic decisions for sustainable practices in Australia and beyond. Paul has contributed significantly to development of national disaster risk reduction policy, programs and platforms while seconded to the Department of Home Affairs and the National Emergency Management Agency. As part of the ERI initiative, Paul is developing integrated hybrid approaches to risk and opportunity assessment, along with novel systems governance strategies. His efforts are focused on enhancing resilience and informing investment decisions in the face of interacting climate and other risks.
Josie Carwardine is an integrated decision scientist addressing critical local to global scale environmental challenges related to biodiversity and the sustainable management of our natural world. She uses multi-disciplinary approaches to understand stakeholders’ needs and connect these with the best available quantitative and qualitative ecological, cultural and social values and knowledge, to help guide improved outcomes for nature and people. Josie also pursues a biodiversity mainstreaming agenda, integrating nature as a critical priority in cross-sectoral and sustainability decision-making, seeking transformative change for the benefit of biodiversity and society.
Stefanos Xenarios is an environmental economist and has made significant contributions to environmental economics, particularly focusing on water resources and climate change. His research interests include natural resources management, environmental policy and economics, decision-aiding systems, hydro-economic modelling, water-energy-food nexus, agricultural policy, and rural development. Stefanos is also actively involved in various editorial boards and professional organisations related to water resources and environmental economics
Seona Meharg is an interdisciplinary integration scientist specialising in how individuals and organisations learn and change. Her research focuses on enabling informed decision-making in complex domains such as climate adaptation, disaster risk reduction, and health. She investigates how individuals and organisations learn and adapt, enabling them to take ownership of knowledge, tools, and processes for more informed decisions. Her efforts include developing capacity-building activities and products to equip individuals, groups and communities to adapt to climate change impacts.
Russell Gorddard specialises in agricultural and natural resource economics. His research focuses on sustainability, adaptation to global change, and the interplay between knowledge, values, and rules in decision-making for adaptation planning and action. Russell’s work aims to enhance resilience and sustainability, bringing together diverse perspectives to develop practical strategies for managing natural resources and adapting to climate change. His current work with the NESP Resilient Landscapes Hub explores emerging systems of transactions and exchanges in socio-economic systems and their implications for adaptation to change.
Jacqui Montgomery is program manager for the ERI initiative, providing strategic and management support across a portfolio of projects and stakeholders.
Zane Court is an environmental scientist who provides research and project support for the ERI initiative.