Core Groups and Working Groups

Connecting Knowledge Generators with Knowledge Implementers

Working groups in the Sustainable Water Future Programme (Water Future) form part of an international platform for integrated research on the global water system during global change.

Each working group will contribute to the two key initiatives of Water Future (Global Water System Assessment Initiative and the Water Solutions Lab Network) to develop knowledge-to-concrete action solutions for the world’s water problems.

The Working Groups develop research strategies and undertake activities in accordance with the agenda of Water Future. The groups have a global membership and are interdisciplinary, integrating the natural and social sciences, legal and governance expertise, economics and technology to address solutions to the multi-faceted global water problems.

Working Groups will also engage relevant stakeholders in their activities (co-design and co-production) from policy development, government agencies, and non-governmental organisations including business groups and ‘not-for-profit’, and other representatives of civil society to facilitate the development and transfer of knowledge to implementation.

Some of the key activities of the Working Groups include:

• Formulating science-policy-practice discussion and identifying essential issues on the Group’s focus topic;
• Formulating clear, integrated research questions;
• Contributing to the fast-track assessment of current state-of-the-art science to answer the questions posed, and identifying the potential need for new research;
• Contributing to basic integrated research;
• Contributing to the Global Water System Assessment process and in relevant Water Solution Labs; and
• Preparing design documents and joint proposals on the group’s thematic area of research.

The working groups will be arranged within the following thematic areas:

1. The global state of water;
2. Water as an agent of change; and
3. Transformation to a sustainable water future.