Systems Engineering Advancement Research Initiative (SEAri) brings together a set of sponsored research projects and a consortium of systems engineering leaders from industry, government, and academia. SEAri is uniquely positioned within the Engineering Systems Division (ESD) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a new kind of interdisciplinary academic unit that spans most departments within the School of Engineering, as well as the School of Science, the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, and the Sloan School of Management. This setting offers a robust research and learning environment for advancing systems engineering to meet the contemporary challenges of complex socio-technical systems. SEAri has strategic relationships with several educational and research programs at MIT, including the MIT System Design & Management Program (SDM) and the Lean Advancement Initiative (LAI) Research Program at MIT.