Founded in 1972, IIASA provides a neutral setting where scientists and other specialists from many nations and disciplines can study issues of international and global importance.

Researching various aspects of environmental, economic, technological, and social issues in the context of global change, IIASA’s research is organized around fields of policy importance rather than academic disciplines. IIASA investigators perform interdisciplinary research that combines methods and models from the natural and social sciences in addressing areas of concern for all societies. In the past, research projects have included studies of

• global climate changes,
• world agricultural potential,
• energy resource requirements and implications,
• regional patterns of acid emission and deposition,
• risk analysis and management,
• social and economic impacts of demographic changes, and
• the theory and methods of systems analysis.

Many of those earlier research projects form the backbone of current activities.

Following the strategic and research goals set by its governing Council, since 2000, IIASA’s research is being carried out under three core themes:

• Environment and Natural Resources
• Population and Society
• Energy and Technology

Within these themes are programs that define the major research areas in which IIASA does its work. These are relatively stable designations for which IIASA has been recognized for over 35 years of work, e.g. agriculture and land use, air pollution, energy, forestry, population, technology, risk, etc. Other IIASA initiatives underscore the basic research program, i.e., Special Projects, and Cross-Cutting Activities.

Finally, since IIASA must operate on the leading edge of research, it also has a responsibility to train a new generation of scholars. Thus, IIASA is also committed to training young scholars who are in the early stages of their careers in the methods and findings of IIASA’s research and to introduce them to the international dimensions of its issues. This responsibility is reflected in the various programs offered to young scholars.

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Last updated: 22 Feb 2010