Environment and Sustainability 

The OUI Environment and Sustainability Research Center conducts interdisciplinary and innovative research in the fields of environment and sustainability. The center was established in 2023, in response to the current ecological and climate crisis, with the aim of promoting applied research that directly contributes to the adoption of quality environmental policy in Israel. During the establishment phase, the center is focusing on research, responding to the challenges of environmental quality and climate change preparedness at the local government level. We aim to address these challenges through innovative, interdisciplinary, and policy-oriented research.

Israel today is one of the most developed countries in the world, and is still undergoing rapid urbanization. By the year 2065, the country is expected to reach an estimated population of 20 million. Over 95 percent of Israelis will live in cities; some of them new. Others will inhabit suburbs or live in the heart of cities undergoing urban renewal. Due to climate change and the pressures of rapid urbanization, open space management, resource use, building climate-resilient infrastructures, provision of public services and overall maintenance of livability present themselves as the country’s most urgent and significant future challenges.

These interlinked sustainability issues will be crucial challenges for the following generations and are central to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The Urban Sustainability Transformations approach serves as a basis for developing pathways for cities to transform and live up to their potential of solving some of our planet’s most urgent problems. In order to design urban sustainability policies, cities will need to harness the power of new technologies and the imagination of young people. They will need to attract global capital and investment and address governance problems, all based upon sound scientific evidence.

The Environment and Sustainability Research Center will be a major scientific player and an incubator for scientific research initiatives in the fields of urban sustainability transformations. We will promote data and science-based decision making in Israel. The center’s researchers, individually and collectively, pursue interdisciplinary research and studies which deal with core issues of urban sustainability policy in Israel. We provide comprehensive and multidimensional scientific responses to the most complex environmental problems. The research studies we carry out will lay the foundation for promoting transitions to sustainability, mitigating climate risks, and promoting environmental justice and cooperation among local authorities. The center will contribute to the development of dialogue and to the availability of the latest scientific knowledge to decision makers.

The center brings together senior faculty researchers, research fellows, external researchers, students, and research assistants. In line with our mission, our steering committee includes scholars from a wide range of disciplines, including data science, natural and life sciences, physical and earth sciences, sociology, geography, law and public policy. We also promote forums for dialogue and collaboration with stakeholders such as local government representatives, central government officials, NGOs, and business organizations. We communicate scientific knowledge to decision makers through a series of review papers, policy papers and innovative scientific studies. All of the center’s research is accessible to decision makers in Hebrew and is presented at round table discussions to our stakeholders.

Thank you for considering supporting this important research initiative.