Resilience Alliance

What Resilience Alliance does

Resilience Alliance is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit research organization founded in 1999 and headquartered in Wolfville, Canada, with 11-50 employees. It advances the science and practical application of resilience in social-ecological systems as a basis for sustainability, serving an international community of academic researchers, graduate students, and early-career scholars engaged in multidisciplinary resilience research. The organization maintains an invitation-based membership model and convenes its network through annual science meetings (e.g., a 5-day meeting of 30 researchers in Bergen, Norway in 2024) and triennial international conferences (co-hosted since 2008, including PECS-3 in Montreal in 2024).

Its core offerings span publications, databases, and educational programs. Knowledge assets include the peer-reviewed journal Ecology and Society (established 2004), the Thresholds and Regime Shifts Database co-maintained with the Santa Fe Institute (containing 103 records across lakes, forests, coral reefs, grasslands, and coastal systems), and a Resilience Glossary. Educational products comprise online and in-person short courses on resilience science and research methods, with the 2025 online course priced at $150 (members) / $300 (non-members) and the 2024 in-person Montreal course priced at $2,000 with scholarships. Communication channels include the RA News e-newsletter and the organization's website. Strategic partnerships anchor the ecosystem: SocSES (Society for Social-Ecological Systems) for course collaboration, NSERC ResNet and PECS for conference co-hosting, and foundation supporters including the Christensen Fund, David and Lucile Packard Foundation, James S. McDonnell Foundation, and Foundation for Scientific Symbiosis.

Name

Resilience Alliance

Legal name

Resilience Alliance

Website

https://resalliance.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1999

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Resilience Alliance is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit research organization advancing social-ecological systems resilience science through journals, databases, short courses, and an international scholar network.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Resilience Science Research

NAICS

Civic and Social Organizations (813410), Religious, Grantmaking, Civic, Professional, and Similar Organizations (813), Educational Support Services (611710)

SIC

Services-Membership Organizations (8600), Services-Commercial Physical & Biological Research (8731)

akta.pro primary industry

Climate Adaptation & Resilience Programs (BPADALAD)

akta.pro secondary industries

Climate Change Mitigation & Adaptation (BPAGAGAF), Disaster Recovery, Reconstruction & Resilience Programs (BPAGAAAK)

Keywords

• Resilience science research
• Social-ecological systems
• Sustainability education
• Ecosystem research methods
• Adaptive governance training

Headquarters

HQ city

Wolfville

HQ country

Canada

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Others

Pricing tiers

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

Resilience Alliance is a nonprofit research organization that advances resilience science in social-ecological systems through paid short courses, scholarly publications (Ecology and Society journal), the Thresholds and Regime Shifts Database (co-developed with the Santa Fe Institute), a Resilience Glossary, and recurring international conferences. Its membership-based research network connects multidisciplinary scholars and supports early-career researchers through programs like RAYS.

Product overview

Resilience Alliance is a research organization offering educational and knowledge resources focused on social-ecological systems resilience. Its core offerings include short courses on resilience science (delivered online and in-person), a thresholds database developed with the Santa Fe Institute documenting regime shifts in ecological systems, a glossary of resilience concepts, and a newsletter. The organization does not offer a software product in the traditional sense.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Short Courses on Resilience Science Online and in-person immersive courses on resilience science, climate change, and research methods for social-ecological systems. Targeted at graduate students, post-doctoral researchers, and early-career scholars seeking structured training in resilience concepts and applied research methods.
• Thresholds and Regime Shifts Database A research database documenting thresholds and regime shifts in ecological and social-ecological systems, developed jointly with the Santa Fe Institute. Contains 103 records across lakes, forests, coral reefs, grasslands, and coastal systems, with fields for certainty of shift, location, system type, reversibility, and management decisions. Targeted at researchers and practitioners in sustainability science.
• Resilience Glossary A curated reference providing accessible definitions of resilience-related terms based on current scientific literature by RA researchers. Covers concepts such as adaptability, adaptive cycle, adaptive governance, complex adaptive systems, and cross-scale dynamics. Targeted at researchers, students, and practitioners needing a common vocabulary for resilience science.

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature2 records

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• Society for Social-Ecological Systems (SocSES)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerSocSES is the home for social-ecological systems research. The two organizations collaborate on short courses, including the 2025 online course on resilience science and climate change (October 27-31, 2025).
• Santa Fe InstitutecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerJoint development and maintenance of the Thresholds and Regime Shifts in Ecological and Social-Ecological Systems database. The database documents thresholds across ecological and social-ecological systems worldwide.
• NSERC ResNetcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaborated with RA on the 2024 in-person short course on research methods for resilience and sustainability science, held as an official side-event of the PECS-3 conference in Montreal.
• Programme on Ecosystem Change and Society (PECS)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCo-host of the PECS-3: Pathways to Sustainability conference in Montreal, Canada. RA short courses serve as official side events to this international conference held every 3 years since 2008.

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA): An international research organization applying systems analysis to environmental and sustainability problems; a founding-member organization of RA and a natural peer in interdisciplinary resilience research.
• Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics: Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences institute focused on resilience and ecological economics; shares RA's theoretical lineage and convenes overlapping research communities in social-ecological systems.
• Resilience Research Centre (University of Minnesota): University-based research centre studying social-ecological resilience from a community/practice perspective; directly comparable as a peer research hub producing overlapping theory, methods, and case studies.
• Programme on Ecosystem Change and Society (PECS): Global research alliance on ecosystem change and society; directly comparable as RA's triennial conference partner and as a peer network of social-ecological systems researchers.
• Stockholm Resilience Centre: A leading research centre on social-ecological systems and resilience science based in Sweden; directly comparable to RA in mission, theoretical focus (resilience, adaptive cycles), and academic audience.
• Santa Fe Institute: Independent research institute on complex adaptive systems; directly comparable as a co-developer of RA's Thresholds Database and as a research counterpart in complexity and resilience.
• Society for Social-Ecological Systems (SocSES): Newly launched scholarly society for SES research that is RA's named partner on the 2025 short course; a close peer and emerging institutional counterpart in the same field.
• Earth System Governance Project: Global research network on environmental governance and earth system transformations; comparable as a similarly structured international scholarly network with overlapping membership in the resilience community.

Others

• Ecology and Society (journal): RA-owned open-access journal that is itself a node in the resilience/SES community; included as a peer asset rather than a competing organization, illustrating RA's distinctive publishing position.

Broad incumbents

• Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK): Large, established German research institute working on climate and Earth-system resilience; broader in scope than RA but overlapping on resilience science and a comparable peer for funding and talent.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/resilience_RA
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/resilience-alliance

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Resilience Alliance