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.