[1] Though international in nature the institute maintains strong regional ties particularly in the fields of climate adaptation and rural tourism.

[3][4] In accordance with Agenda 21 guidelines, the institute takes the concept of sustainable development as the starting point in its environmental research programmes.

Within this interdisciplinary field the institute is focused on the following: eGovernment and public sector organisation; Regional development; Infrastructure and networking; eCommerce in small and medium-sized businesses.

The institutes work in the field of Usability largely focuses on human computer interfaces (HCI), information architecture and semantic web.

This has led to a series of climate adaptation strategies being developed by municipalities such as Fredrikstad and Flora [6] with the support of the Institute.