CAEPR develops and updates its triennial research program through an annual planning process. This theoretically and empirically informed scholarship is underpinned by rigorous, evidence-based methodology. The Centre's research is both socially informed and relevant to Indigenous people and to Australian society in general.

CAEPR does not hold to any corporate view, and all CAEPR research is independent scholarship. A substantial proportion of CAEPR's research is based on fieldwork in Indigenous communities conducted in partnership with Indigenous organisations.

CAEPR's external research links

CAEPR has significant research funding arrangements with the Ministerial Council on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs (MCATSIA), the Sidney Myer Fund, and the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA). Our research priorities also reflect those of valued research and industry partners such as the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), Fred Hollows Foundation, Tropical Rivers and Coastal Knowledge (TRaCK) hub, North Australia Indigenous and and Sea Management Alliance (NAILSMA), New South Wales Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water (DECCW), and New South Wales Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research.

CAEPR maintains close links with the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies and the Australian Anthropology Society. It has established academic links with a number of interstate research centres and agencies such as the Social Policy Research Centre at the University of NSW in Sydney, and the Australian Institute of Family Studies in Melbourne. In Darwin, important research linkages are maintained with Charles Darwin University.