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In the year 2000 The University of Economics and Business Administration in Vienna initiated an international research network designed to explore the field of evaluating Sustainable Development.

For this purpose, projects are planned in the areas of

basic research
application of such research
exchange of knowledge between science, evaluation practice and the authorities commissioning projects on the evaluation of sustainable development.

Our Research Programme

This paper outlines the main research questions which will be tackled in this research network over the next few years. We will define research topics to be investigated by the network on the basis of the following four problem areas:

Problem area 1: The market for evaluating Sustainable Development lacks transparency, while demand is rising.

Problem area 2: There is no established set of methods (toolkit) for the evaluation of Sustainable Development, but a multitude of disciplines and approaches.

Problem area 3: There is no common understanding of the operationalisation of Sustainable Development to be used in evaluation projects

Problem area 4: The evaluation of Sustainable Development is part of a larger management system and presents a chance for organized learning.

A multitude of research questions arise from these problem areas, which can be summarized by the following aims:

Development of an interdisciplinary framework to systemise present know-how available from the various disciplines dealing with the evaluation of Sustainability.
Basic research to further develop methods for the evaluation of Sustainable Development with a view to creating a modular toolkit.
Theoretical discussion of the paradigms of Sustainable Development and their consequences for the evaluation of Sustainable Development.
Critical reflection on current evaluation practice through meta analysis, comparative methods analysis, country analysis and dialogues between scientists and practitioners.
Creating a network integrating scientific research, evaluation practice and those commissioning evaluations to establish a common understanding of the evaluation of Sustainable Development
Further development of the evaluation of Sustainable Development into an integral part of a sustainable management system which shows implementation success on different levels and contributes to a transfer of learning effects.