Following conferences in Pignans, Maastricht, Vienna and Cologne and many e-mail exchanges, the participants of the GoSD-research initiative have identified a path for future research that describes not only governance and sustainable development but also how governance can be *for* sustainable development. This concluding paper gives an account of the pre-analytic vision, hypotheses and questions that have so far emerged from this process. Given the difficulty and importance of the task, a first section focuses on methodological questions. Consecutive sections elucidate *for sustainable development*, as well as "governance for". The emerging pre-analytic vision then receives some in-depth treatment and we consider how to measure the *for* of governance for sustainable development through objectives and indicators, taking into account the paradox of change with conservation. This sets the stage for a final section on research hypothesis and questions that give a meaning to governance for sustainable development, and that will allow this research project to develop in a way that makes insight and useful policy recommendations possible.