Integration and Implementation Sciences (i2S):
Improving research and its impact on complex real-world problems
Aims and overview of i2S
Integration and Implementation Sciences (i2S) is a new discipline providing concepts, methods, processes, theories, frameworks and other tools for conducting research that aims to better understand, and bring about improvements in, complex societal and environmental problems.
i2S is described in the graphic below. A more detailed description is available in the i2Insights contribution by Gabriele Bammer, Integration and Implementation Sciences (i2S) 3.0: An updated framework to foster expertise for tackling complex problems.
Integration and Implementation Insights (i2Insights) blog and toolkit brings i2S to life by highlighting tools in weekly blog posts and storing them in an indexed and accessible way.
Both i2S and i2Insights also seek to connect and build an academic community that develops and applies those tools, especially specialists who support teams with i2S expertise.
To understand how i2S operates as a discipline, it is useful to examine the closest analogy among existing disciplines, namely statistics. Like statisticians, i2S specialists contribute to, and collaborate with, teams tackling a wide range of problems in health, the environment, education, security and more. A comparison is provided in the following table and described in the i2Insights contribution by Gabriele Bammer, Three lessons from statistics for interdisciplinarians and fellow travellers:
In addition to the infographic for the i2S framework 3.0 shown above, three images are used to depict i2S:
- i2S ‘swirl’
- i2S ‘word cloud’
- the sculpture Kulla’s Ripple by Tim Spellman.
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i2S swirl
The i2S swirl is our logo and symbolises the synergies among disparate ways of tackling complex societal and environmental problems.
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i2S word cloud
The i2S word cloud contains the names of various approaches to tackling complex societal and environmental problems. The aim of i2S is to provide a conduit connecting these approaches, as a common underlying discipline which promotes cross-fertilisation. The i2Insights blog and repository draws on resources developed by all of these approaches.
It is also important to note that there are many individual and groups of researchers seeking to improve understanding of, and action on, complex real-world problems who do not identify with any of the approaches listed in the word cloud. They may be known as T-shaped researchers or knowledge brokers. They are an additional, important group that i2S seeks to connect with.
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Kulla’s Ripple by Tim Spellman
The sculpture Kulla’s Ripple by Tim Spellman (2000) provides a useful metaphor for several key dimensions of i2S. The ANU Sculpture Walk brochure (https://hrc.cass.anu.edu.au/files/docs/2025/3/Sculpture-Walk-Brochure_ANU.pdf (PDF 2.1MB)), described the sculpture as follows: “The spherical and concave shapes link the two parts of the installation with their suggestion of symbiotic pairs: positive and negative, solid and void, the mould and the moulded. Spellman describes his work as the attempt to create wholeness from the dualities of past and present, the physical and the spiritual.”
From the perspective of i2S, three symbiotic pairs are important:
- tractable and intactable problems (the latter are often called complex or wicked problems)
- reductionist and systemic research approaches
- knowns and unknowns.
Unlike the sculpture where both elements of the pair are reasonably equal, the symbiotic pairs relevant to i2S are not, with the right-hand element in each pair (intractable problems, systemic research approaches and dealing with unknowns) relatively underdeveloped. Indeed the rationale for i2S is to: a) improve the research community’s ability (and therefore the ability of society in general) to deal with intractable problems; b) strengthen systemic research approaches; and, c) advance understanding and management of the unknown.
Whereas the ability of research to deal with tractable problems using reductionist methods is highly developed and sophisticated, the ability of research to deal with intractable complex problems using systems-based methods is still relatively ill-formed and unwieldy. i2S aims to even out the relationship by enhancing the ability of research to deal with intractable problems.
The sculpture is located on ANU Campus on Chifley Meadow, near the Menzies Library.
Historical overview
Anyone interested in the historical and broader development of i2S may find the following useful. Please note that this information is not updated and that as links become inactive they are removed.
The Integration and Implementation Sciences (i2S) team is based at the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health (NCEPH) which is part of the ANU College of Health and Medicine (CHM) at The Australian National University (ANU). The ANU team is deliberately small and focuses on a wide range of international resource and community building activities, through collaborations with a large number of individuals and groups. We are also grateful to previous team members.
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Professor Gabriele Bammer is the team leader and originator of Integration and Implementation Sciences (i2S), which is described in detail in the 2013 book Disciplining Interdisciplinarity. She also conceived and organises the Integration and Implementation Insights (i2Insights) blog and repository. Web page: https://researchers.anu.edu.au/researchers/bammer-g. |
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Peter Deane is the webmaster, organises the newsletter and provides research assistance on various projects. He is also responsible for the operational aspects of the Integration and Implementation Insights (i2Insights) blog and repository. He co-authored the book Research Integration Using Dialogue Methods. Web page: https://nceph.anu.edu.au/people/professional-staff/mr-peter-deane. |
Previous Team Members
The Integration and Implementation Sciences (I2S) team has benefitted greatly from the work of the following previous team members.
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Caryn Anderson was a Research Officer with the I2S team from 2008-2009 and worked on a range of projects. In 2004, as a student project at Simmons College, Boston, USA, she and Kylie Nicholls developed the beginnings of a thesaurus on i2S (PDF 1.3MB). She continues to draw on i2S in her current PhD research at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA. |
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Dr Jennifer Badham was a consultant in 2010 and a Research Fellow in 2011-12. Jen worked on modelling as a method for knowledge synthesis, understanding and managing unknowns and providing decision support to policy makers and practitioners. The first stage of this work was published as Integration Insight #12. Jen also taught in the short course for research leaders on The Art and Science of Integration and Implementation. |
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David McDonald is a Visiting Fellow and helps organise ongoing contact for alumni of the professional course Bridging the Research-Policy Divide, in which he also taught, particularly assisting the Fellows develop a case study based on their previous experience in using their research to influence policy change. David also taught in the short course for research leaders on The Art and Science of Integration and Implementation. He co-authored the book Research Integration Using Dialogue Methods. |
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Dr Mahomed Patel was a Visiting Fellow who taught in the professional course Bridging the Research-Policy Divide, particularly assisting the Fellows develop a policy brief based on their research and a policy influence plan for implementing it. |
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Dr Alice Roughley worked on a project examining organisational facilitators and barriers to research integration and implementation in 2010. |
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Professor Michael Smithson from the ANU Research School of Psychology is an innovative thinker on unknowns and I2S draws heavily on his work. Gabriele Bammer and he co-edited Uncertainty and Risk: Multidisciplinary Prespectives on Change. Mike and Gabriele are developed and run a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on “Ignorance!” through edX. Mike also taught in the short course for research leaders on The Art and Science of Integration and Implementation. Web page: https://medicine-psychology.anu.edu.au/people/emeritus-professor-mike-smithson. |
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Lyn Stephens was a consultant for a project on dialogue methods (PDF 265KB) from late 2010 to 2012. She played a key role in finding and contacting people with experience with dialogue methods. |
The development of Integration and Implementation Sciences (i2S) has been made possible through funding awarded to Professor Gabriele Bammer and colleagues by:
- the Fulbright New Century Scholars program
- the US National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center at the University of Maryland, especially through the theme “Building Resources for Complex, Action-Oriented Team Science”
- the New Zealand Our Land and Water National Science Challenge, through the Collaboration Lab programme (PDF 823kb)
- the Colonial Foundation Trust to the Drug Policy Modelling Program
- the ARC Centre of Excellence in Policing and Security
- (Note: the following website is archived at Trove (National Library of Australia)): a Land and Water Australia Innovation grant (ANU58: Improving integration in NRM: learning from health, security and innovation.)
- the National Health and Medical Research Council through a Capacity Building Grant (Environment and population health: research development from local to global) and a Project grant (Improving understanding of psychostimulant-related harms in Australia: an integrated ethno-epidemiological approach)
- an Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change Research CAPaBLE (Scientific Capacity Building/Enhancement for Sustainable Development in Developing Countries) Grant (Improving Policy Responses to Interactions between Global Environmental Change and Food Security across the Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP))
- a Natural Environment Research Council (UK) grant (GECAFS DSS literature review and preparation of scientific paper structure)
- the Visiting Scholars Program, Competence Centre Environment and Sustainability, ETH-Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich)
- the AusAID Australian Leadership Awards – Fellowships Program (for the courses on Bridging the Research-Policy Divide)
- the US National Cancer Institute through the Initiative on the Study and Implementation of Systems (ISIS).
There has also been on-going support from The Australian National University, particularly through the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health.
Website
Peter Deane has been webmaster since he developed our first website in 2002. (Website administrator note October 2026: This website had a URL in the form (note that this link is not active): i2s.anu.edu.au, and all further website development iterations mentioned here refer to this URL.) In 2004, Anthony Bennett (IT Manager, ANU Centre for Mental Health Research), supported by Peter, developed our second generation website as a custom build. In 2008-09, using a content management framework, Caryn Anderson and Peter Deane worked with the web development company Kudasai on the third generation of the website. In 2011, the i2S website was made compliant with the (then) new ANU template. In 2014, using the same content management framework used on the previous build, Peter Deane worked with the web development company PreviousNext on the fourth generation of the website. In 2018, switching to a new content management system and using a rebuild of the ANU web template, Peter Deane worked with the information technology company Link Digital on the current, now fifth generation, of the website. (Website administrator note October 2026: the “current” generation of the website referred to in the previous sentence refers to the version that existed in 2024, before all the material was transferred to the website it is now on.)
Images
Sources, and acknowledgement of, images used on this website is available on the [Website administrator update October 2026: the following link has been disabled and the link text turned to italics to represent link removal] Copyright, Terms of use and Privacy notices page.
- Page updated: October 27, 2026