Our main themes focus on the six major issues at the centre of the human-planetary relationship: global environmental change, food, waterand energy security, natural hazards and future cities and communities.

Each of these Themes comprises dozens of academics from disciplines spanning the entire university and partners from government, industry, civil organisations and the public. Within each Theme we harness world-leading strength in risk and uncertainty assessment, modelling and big data analysis (underpinned by £4M investment in high performance computing), and expertise in knowledge co-production, security and governance.

Crucially, the Cabot Institute brings these Themes - each vibrant in its own right - together. These are strongly interconnected challenges; and interconnected challenges require integrated solutions. The inclusion of a Future Cities theme is a unique feature of the Cabot Institute, arising from our strong partnership with the city of Bristol (European Green Capital 2015) and a recognition that addressing global environmental challenges must be based on a robust understanding of how we live.