Some of the ICON Science team (2019), Back row L-R: Freya Thomas, Emily Gregg, Katherine Berthon, Sarah Bekessy, Lindall Kidd, Georgia Garrard, Front row L-R: Matthew Selinske, Holly Kirk, Marco Gutiérrez, Thami Croeser, Ascelin Gordon, Phoebe Crockett.

The Interdisciplinary Conservation Science Research Group (ICON Science) is a team of researchers working to better understand and manage the interactions between society and our natural environment. We believe conserving biodiversity demands a multidisciplinary approach that reconciles ecological, social and economic dimensions.

ICON Science examines these different drivers of change, often with a focus on urban and semi-rural environments. Our aim is to address the gap between conservation theory and real world practice in complex planning environments.

We welcome visitors and potential collaborators! Please see our Research Themes for more information on our current projects and contact our theme leaders for topics you are interested in.

We work as part of RMIT University’s Centre of Urban Research (CUR) and Centre for Environmental Sustainability and Remediation (EnSuRe), and the Threatened Species Recovery Hub and Clean Air and Urban Landscape Hub of the Australian Government’s National Environmental Science Program.

Acknowledgement of Country
Adapted from RMIT University’s Centre of Urban Research acknowledgement

We at ICON Science acknowledge the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation on whose unceded lands we conduct our research, teaching and service. We respectfully acknowledge Ancestors and Elders past, present and emerging who have always been caring for Country. We pay our respects to Country, the lifeworld that sustains us all.

Our research, education and service is already in a relationship with Country and the people of Country, here and in all the places we undertake our business. As mostly non-Indigenous people, we acknowledge our obligation in this relationship: to uphold the ngarn-ga [understanding] of Bundjil and practice respect for community and culture. Though there is much we still need to learn, especially about ourselves, we affirm our dhumbali [commitment] to that work. We hold as central to our business dhumbali to a shared future with Indigenous peoples everywhere and especially Kulin Country and peoples.