The UF Center for Adaptive Innovation, Resilience, Ethics and Science is an interdisciplinary network of faculty conducting research and teaching in sustainability-related fields. We advance scholarship and pedagogy in the environmental, ecological and climate sciences; sustainable design, engineering, and construction; wildlife conservation and biodiversity; sustainable development; green technology; and sustainability planning and policy. UF CAIRES helps ideas take root, developing solutions that benefit people and planet.
The central conviction grounding our work is that robust consideration of what is environmentally and socially sustainable can spur technological, economic, political and cultural development. To this end, UF CAIRES bridges academic silos across the humanities, natural sciences, social sciences and professional schools while forging relationships with government agencies, businesses, non-profit organizations and community leaders. By grounding transdisciplinary exchange in systems thinking and shared values, the center provides a catalytic learning environment that stimulates ingenuity and creative problem solving.
In the realms of policy and technological development, today’s solutions often become tomorrow’s problems. Short-term gains arrive on the back of hidden—and often exorbitant—social, economic and ecological costs. UF CAIRES focuses on both upstream initiatives and downstream impacts. We promote adaptive innovations that improve the health and resilience of human and ecological communities.
Agrarian conservationist and poet Wendell Berry coined the term “solving for pattern.” To solve for pattern is to sustain and improve the network of relationships, processes and values within which particular needs are addressed and problems are solved. UF CAIRES promotes systems thinking and multi-stakeholder participation to ensure that the innovations we develop provide long-term, win-win-win solutions that benefit the environment, society and the economy.