Welcome to the Center for Systems Innovation (CSI), where we are dedicated to make the world a better place through systems thinking and sustainable solutions. I’m Attila Katona, the founder and director, and I’m excited to share our journey with you.

CSI emerged from my academic, consulting, and teaching activities across Europe, Asia, and North America spanning over a decade, where I learned the limitations of ‘business as usual’ approaches to addressing systemic challenges. This solidified my commitment to work with change agents and empower future generations. I firmly believe that encouraging people to think critically, co-create, and look for creative solutions are among the most powerful tools to tackle fundamental sustainability challenges.

Driven by a background in engineering and economics, I focused my PhD on unlocking the transformative potential of nature in cities through clever governance, business, finance and partnership models, which is what led me to collaborate with my colleagues at the Central European University to establish PHYSI, an urban consulting, modeling and software company. Additionally, I had the privilege of working for intergovernmental organizations like the Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe, EIT Climate-KIC, and various UN and EU bodies, lead youth organisations, teach at universities from Mongolia to Estonia, dive coral reefs, build canadian first nations inukshuks, cross deserts, and get to know wonderful people along the way.

My goal with CSI is to share my professional learnings from this journey. I aim to scale systems approaches by forging partnerships and providing people with the necessary knowledge to make a positive impact. Whether you’re an entrepreneur, intrapreneur, policymaker, expert, student, teacher, or simply an enthusiast – we are here to support you.

"We just cannot solve problems with the same thinking that we used when we created them."

About the organization

"Tell me and I forget, teach me and I remember, involve me and I learn."

– XUN KUANG

The Center for Systems Innovation (CSI) is an educational and consulting company specializing in systems methods and tools for sustainable development governance, urban transformation, and circular economy. We support private sector transformation, community engagement, policy experiments, school work, and the implementation of innovative ideas, relying on solid evidence, monitoring, and broad stakeholder participation to navigate complexity. In addition, we undertake quality assurance of international educational projects, engage in EU-funded research, and develop systems-based role-playing games, simulation tools, workshops, and guides to make systems education in schools, universities, and professional settings engaging and understandable.

While CSI is based in Hungary and primarily active in the EU, our work extends far to countries such as Mongolia, the Philippines, India, Singapore, China, Ukraine, untangling and making sense of some of the most complex problems in the world, where much is at stake. Despite our global reach, we maintain strong connections in the Hungarian civil sector, as well as academic, talent development, and business arenas, cultivated over a decade of local engagement.

We believe that global challenges such as climate change, ecosystem degradation, resource shortages and structural waste are symptoms of a lack of systems perspective in governance. While some are making slow, sporadic, incremental changes, there is a substantial gap between the promise of sustainable solutions, and actual uptake – our challenges are complex, embedded, ambiguous, difficult, and do not give in easily to shiny, just-so hotfixes. There is a burning need for ways to tackle complexity with systems mindsets, processes, and tools.

Our small, interdisciplinary team includes dedicated part-time interns, mentees, and a vast network of project-based affiliate experts and partners. Guided by systems innovation, we help individuals and organizations make sense of, navigate, and untangle complex challenges within intricate systems, and co-develop better solutions. If you wish to collaborate with us, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

CSI is legally registered as Systems Innovation Center Kft. in Hungary, 1106 Budapest, Gyakorló utca 18, fsz. 3., under ID 01-09-405895 and VAT HU32085879 since 2022. Its predecessor has been a legal entity since 2013 (license 8445040049, HU67819001).

Our Team

Attila Katona

Director & Lead Expert

Attila led research and education programs for 12+ years across academic, public, non-profit, and commercial sectors in Europe and Asia, including 150+ capacity-building events reaching thousands each year. He is the Director of CSI and Principal Investigator for 9 EU projects.

Franciska Német

Medior Expert

Franci is a Project Manager and Medior Expert at CSI. She studied Global Project and Change Management in the Netherlands, and gained experience at Het Groene Brein and Dutch municipalities on circular economy, and supply chain finance through international projects.

Camille Fresto

Medior Expert

Camille is an environmental economist and PhD candidate specialized on ESG. She has extensive experience consulting and teaching corporate responsibility across academic and professional settings. At CSI, she leads e-learning, CBHE, and innovation projects.

Zsuzsanna Kray

Senior Expert

Zsuzsa has 10+ years of experience in sustainability education, working on H2020, E+, LIFE and Interreg projects as both project manager and expert. She develops curricula, training, outdoor education, camps on climate and health, fostering global-local learning.

Gáspár Békés

Medior Expert

Gáspár is an expert on environmental security and urbanism with degrees from Sciences Po, King’s College, and CEU. He worked at the European Commission's DG Environment and the Democracy Institute, and now manages Horizon and CBHE project development and delivery at CSI.

Ani Kakhidze

Communications Expert

Ani is a media and communication professional with experience in journalism, education, and civic initiatives. At CSI, she plans and creates content for social media, supports international KA1 and KA2 projects, and develops visually engaging educational materials.

Rudi Kovács

Junior Expert

Rudi is a Business and Management student, specializing in Sustainability Management. At CSI, he contributes to service and organizational development, local events, as well as project tasks as an assistant.

Tamás Gömöri

Junior Expert

Tamás is a cognitive science professional who builds projects that link education and contemplative practice. As CSI's Expert and Co-founder of coMetta he focuses on systemic change, well-being, inner development, and sustainability in education.

Angéla Balázs-Dér

Junior Expert

Angéla has 7 years of technical experience in the chemical and manufacturing industries. Since 2022, she has contributed to circular business model development and learning content design as a junior expert at CSI.

Terézia Turcsán

Office and Events manager

Terézia is a senior management professional with 40 years of executive experience in telecommunications, complemented by 5 years in facility management of 40 building complexes and 5 years in the cultural sector. She is CSI’s advisor and events manager.

Kitti Králl

Office and Legal Assistant

Kitti is a law student with years of professional experience in healthcare and law. As an educator with 2700+ teaching hours, she guided over 150 students to outstanding results, distinguished by her precision and professional standards. She is CSI's Office & Legal Assistant.

Valéria Pónya

Academic Intern

Valéria is a student of Environmental Data Science at CZU and has been supporting CSI as an intern for 2+ years. She contributes to international projects through supporting management, communication, content development, and digital tool maintenance.