Peat's research areas are social and institutional dimensions of natural resource management; institutional design; the roles of science and technology in sustainability; climate change adaptation in agriculture, fisheries and coastal zone management; social learning and collective knowledge production. Over the last decade Peat has been involved in and led a variety of inter- and trans-disciplinary research projects across the social and biophysical sciences in areas ranging from fisheries, coastal zone management, agriculture, to terrestrial natural resource management.