Sustainable Futures Institute (Australia)

The Sustainable Futures Institute (Australia) works in close collaboration with the Mekong Region Futures
Institute (MERFI). The Institute combines scientific assessment methods, participatory processes and local
capacity building to effectively contribute to evidence-based decision making leading to more sustainable
natural resource management in the Greater Mekong Sub-region. The Institute was established in 2013 by Dr
Alex Smajgl and Dr John Ward, formerly senior research scientists with the Australian Government’s CSIRO. The
Sustainable Futures Institute (Australia) intends to export the Australian water management expertise into
decision making processes in the wider Mekong Region through the policy-making network of MERFI. Recently,
we advised cross sectoral analysis in the Nam Xong basin, Lao PDR, funded by the CGIAR Water Land and
Ecosystems group. We have also recently advised up-scaling methodology for climate change adaptation in the
Vietnam Delta, a groundwater and managed aquifer recharge project in India and an ecosystem service
valuation tool for USAID. The portfolio of current research continues and extends a DFAT (Australia) funded water
food and energy nexus project conducted from 2010-2014 in five Mekong countries.