Flagship Projects
"Narrowly focused, single-disciplinary science alone cannot adequately underpin policies and solutions to resolve major sustainability challenges. For science to play a pivotal role in addressing the green growth and sustainability challenges of Rio+20, or the UN MDGs, we must rapidly refocus intellectual and economic investments toward multiscale, integrated, interdisciplinary approaches that consider social, economic, and environmental aspects, that look across and between borders and sectors, and that identify feedbacks or the cobenefits of a policy or management decision, before it is made," wrote IIASA's Director and CEO, Professor Pavel Kabat in an essay for Science magazine.
Flagship projects at IIASA adopt this “systems” approach and currently include:
Global Energy Assessment
The Global Energy Assessment (GEA), launched in 2012, defines a new global energy policy agenda – one that transforms the way society thinks about, uses, and delivers energy. Involving specialists from a range of disciplines, industry groups, and policy areas, GEA research aims to facilitate equitable and sustainable energy services for all, in particular the two billion people who currently lack access to clean, modern energy. More
Water Futures and Solutions: World Water Scenarios
Water resources are central to development and poverty alleviation. Yet decision makers face many challenges to ensuring their sustainable and equitable use. More