Centre for Systems Solutions

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Centre For Systems Solutions

The Centre for Systems Solutions (also known by its Polish name - Centrum Rozwiązań Systemowych, CRS) is an international organization established in 2005 in Wrocław, Poland, with an aim, as cited from its official website, “to develop and apply systems methods and tools, such as social simulations and computer modelling, to enhance knowledge brokering, science-policy integration and social dialogue”.. The organization’s activities are targeted at diverse stakeholders: business, government administration, NGO, research, and educational institutions at local, national and international levels

Mission

The Centre for Systems Solutions belongs to the "quaternary" service sector, focused on knowledge- and information-generation and sharing, research development, training and education.. The organization’s main mission is to spread information about the greatest challenges of modern times, such as climate change, water-energy-food nexus, common pool resources management, sustainable development, health security, disaster risk reduction, etc., and help diverse audiences identify effective ways to address them

Activities

As a means to reach its mission, the Centre for Systems Solutions makes use of systems tools and participatory approaches to policy-making, awareness-raising as well as knowledge and skill development. Foremost, the organization creates and applies multiplayer interactive serious games (in particular, social and strategic simulations) that span multiple technologies, including mobile and computer games, board games and role-playing simulations. It also disseminates them through multi-stakeholder game- and simulation-based workshops, relevant publications and participation in international projects., and conferences. In the course of its activity, the Centre for Systems Solutions has established a close partnership with individuals and organizations from a number of sectors, including, i.a.,OECD, African Development Bank, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, European Forum Alpbach, the Balaton Group, Wuppertal Institute, Climate-KIC, Goethe Institut, Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Stockholm Environment Institute, and many others.

Social Simulations (serious games):

The World’s Future Game

The World's Future is a social simulation inspired by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that aim to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure prosperity for all. It was created to help players deepen their understanding of the complexities of global systems, identify and acknowledge the interdependencies of their actions, and observe the potential trade-offs and synergies that come with the implementation of the SDGs. The game is widely used to foster coherent and integrated policy-making and has been played by participants from the OECD, the European Forum Alpbach and European Commision, among others.

Nexus Game

The Nexus Game is an analog multiplayer serious game (social simulation) that addresses the interrelated challenges of water, energy, and food production. The game’s narration centres around two riparian countries sharing a transboundary river basin. Through interministerial and international negotiations, participants may learn how to reduce national and global water, food, and energy footprints, discover potential synergies in the system and foster technological development supporting the nexus’ efficiency.

Energy Transition Game

The Energy Transition Game is an analog multiplayer serious game (social simulation) about making the transition from fossil fuel energy production to renewables. The game presents multiple aspects of decarbonization, highlighting the fact that systemic change cannot happen in silos and requires acknowledging the interconnections between actors, differences in values and priorities as well as institutional or technological limits. In the game, these aspects are represented by a diversity of roles. Players can become energy producers, technology developers, representatives of an energy distribution company, NGO employees or heads of different government departments. Each of them has different (often competing) goals and responsibilities. The interactions between them create the in-game reality, resulting in failures or successes that determine the speed and efficiency of the energy transition.

Green & Great

Green & Great is a multiplayer Internet game that simulates a business environment. As managers of large consultancy companies, players compete for contracts and struggle to ensure the growth and economic position of their organization. In the process, they have to contend with factors as diverse as  company reputation, low-emission economy, corporate social responsibility and sustainability [4]. Their performance in the company is monitored by the “Sustainability” monitor that allows taking corrective action. The game highlights the intricate nature of business operations and requires players to prioritize their actions carefully, keeping a balance between a long-term vision and current operational and economic performance.

Lords of the Valley

The Lords of the Valley is a multiplayer Internet simulation developed from Floodplain Management Game, which was created as part of the “NeWater” research project (2005-2009). It presents the challenges of a systemic transition from the traditional concept of a flood-prone community “struggling against the river” to a more adaptive “co-existence with the river” approach. In the in-game reality, players, as farmers, cultivate crops and try to protect them against unexpected floods. In the course of the game, they have the opportunity to verify their preconceptions and ideas about effective river management and receive feedback about the consequences of their decisions.

New Shores - a Game for Democracy

New Shores - a Game for Democracy is a multiplayer Internet game that touches upon the fundamentals of democratic societies, such as social inclusiveness, individual and group entrepreneurship, management of common resources and economic prosperity versus environmental responsibility. Players are sent to an anonymous island where they embark on a mission to build a well-functioning community. Managing common resources and struggling to develop their society, they learn to recognize the value of cooperation and communication. The game was created as part of an Erasmus+ project and was recognized by the Global Challenges Foundation as an Educators’ Challenge competition finalist.

Flood Resilience Game

Flood Resilience Game is a multiplayer board-game in which players become members of a flood-prone community. The game draws on research about the complex challenges of reducing flood risk and fostering sustainable development. Exposed to the simulated impacts of flood damage on housing and infrastructure, players experience, explore, and learn about flood risk and resilience. At the same time, they struggle with everyday problems (such as earning money, protecting health and educating children), and try to establish good relationships between community members.

InDilemma

InDilemma was developed by IIASA and the Centre for Systems Solutions as a combination of serious role-play game, choreography and an interactive performance. The narration, inspired by game theory, centers around the tragedy of the commons concept, social inequalities and conflicts. InDilemma was first “played” at the Political Symposium of the European Forum Alpbach on 29 August 2017 and was also live-streamed. The experience is led by the game-master and performed by professional dancers whose actions are driven by the decisions made by the audience. The scenography is limited to an interactive screen which reacts to the decisions taken by the audience and performed by the dancers. Depending on the course of action, the world depicted on the screen may either be destroyed or saved.

Projects

The Centre for Systems Solutions is actively engaged in a number of international projects related to different areas of sustainability, disaster risk reduction and governance of common resources, including:

Games4Sustainability

Launched in 2015, Games4Sustainability is an online platform that promotes serious and educational games on sustainable development and is mainly targeted at academics, trainers, NGOs, teachers, students and other people interested in implementing sustainability games in their work. The platform comprises a blog and an online database of sustainability-related games. The blog posts are written both by Games4Sustainability’s authors and guest contributors, including game experts and educators, such as game developer John Krajewski from Strange Loop Games. It offers readers inspiration for how to use games in different areas of sustainability. Parallelly, the online database acts as a repository of both analog and digital games/simulations and can be searched by defined criteria, such as a specific sustainable development goal, time of play or the required number of players, etc. Users can access information about each game’s main idea, goals, prices or equipment required.  

EDUCEN: European Disasters in Urban Centers: a Culture Expert Network

Realized in the years 2015-17, the EDUCEN project aimed at establishing an European expert platform centered around the role of culture in disaster and risk management. Its main assumption was the idea that that cultures hold important assets to support disaster resilience. As part of the project, the Centre for Systems Solutions designed a series of social simulations focused on exploring the links between culture and resilience, including Gifts of Culture, Flood Resilience Game, Cultural Memory Game and Evacuation Challenge Game.

RURITAGE: Rural regeneration through systemic heritage-led strategies

Led in the years of 2018-22, the RURITAGE project aims to demonstrate how rich cultural and natural heritage (such as local food, art and festivals or natural landscape features) of selected rural areas may be used as a driver for their sustainable development. For this purpose, the consortium has chosen a dozen well-functioning rural regions that - via the sharing of knowledge and good practices - will inspire other selected rural areas to “replicate” their success. As part of the project, the Centre for Systems Solutions is developing a set of multiplayer board-games that will help “replicators” to notice and appreciate their cultural and natural heritage and incorporate it into their regional strategy for sustainable economic, social and environmental growth.

PSI-connect: Policy Science Interactions: connecting science and policy

Realized in the years 2009-2012, the project aimed to bridge the gap between scientists and policymakers, and thus improve the collective management of a river basin, in particular in the context of climate change and its related impacts (such as sea-level rise, extreme rainfall and droughts, and loss of species and ecosystems both on land and in water. The project examined different collaborative knowledge brokerage and production instruments as related to “real-life” policy processes, including simulation games. As part of the project, the Centre for Systems Solutions prepared and organized a workshop based on its simulation about community flood resilience, Lords of the Valley.  

SCENES: Water Scenarios for Europe and for Neighboring Countries

Led in the years 2006-2010, the SCENES project researched and analyzed a set of possible future scenarios (until 2025) connected to European freshwater systems. The identified scenarios were further used as a reference point for long-term strategic planning of European water resource development, allowing river basin managers and policymakers to observe emerging problems and test relevant water policies. The Centre for Systems Solutions’ role in the project was to  prepare conceptual models supporting the development of the aforementioned scenarios

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