IIASA Research Projects
Age and Cohort Change (ACC)
The ACC project studies age, cohort and international variation in workers' productivity, and estimates and projects changes in religiosity by demographic characteristics in all countries in the world. More
Assessing Climate Change Impacts on China’s Agro-Ecosystem
Researchers are creating a multi-scale agro-ecosystem model by combining two leading crop models, allowing for an analysis of both farm-level and regional agricultural dynamics that will assist in developing strategies to climate change-induced changes to China’s agriculture. More
Assessment of Climate Change Mitigation Pathways (AMPERE)
AMPERE researchers are using state-of-the art models to develop long-term strategies and scenarios to find economically feasible ways to lessen the global impact of climate change. More
Analyzing the Energy Dimensions of Poverty
The ENE Program is analyzing how improving access to modern energy carriers and technologies in developing countries can potentially improve human health and well-being. More
Livestock Production Scenarios (AnimalChange)
AnimalChange creates scenarios that project 20 and 40 years into the future to allow policymakers to see what impact climate change is likely to have on livestock production in Europe, Northern and sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America. More
Austrian Panel on Climate Change (APCC)
An in-depth assessment of the effects of climate change on Austria is underway and should support mitigation and adaptation strategies for the future. More
Achieving Low Carbon Economies (Attainability)
By identifying which barriers to achieving deep reductions in greenhouse gas emissions can be removed by changing policies and economic incentives, the Attainability Project is pinpointing the best short- and long-term responses available to policymakers. More
Earth Observation in the Balkans (BalkanGEONet)
BalkanGEONet is designed to strengthen existing Earth Observation research and participation among the Balkan countries and encourage those countries not yet involved to join the GEO initiative. More
Extreme Weather Impacts on Carbon Sinks (CARBO-Extreme)
European ecosystems help stabilize the atmosphere by soaking up significant amounts of the carbon in fossil fuel emissions, but researchers are concerned that the effectiveness of these carbon sinks might be diminished by expected increases in extreme weather. More
CATSEI
The CATSEI-project (acronym for the above title) studies the impacts of China’s vigorous agricultural transition, on the country itself, as well on its trading partners, the EU in particular. It follows a quantitative approach, supplemented by qualitative investigations. The quantitative research takes as point of departure the Chinagro-I policy simulation model developed in the earlier CHINAGRO project. More
Re-engineering Cities for Good (CFG)
The project examines how a city’s infrastructure can be re-engineered to restore the natural ecosystem services that existed on the land before the city was built. More
Climate Change and Natural Disasters (CHANGES)
Global warming is expected to alter natural disaster patterns in Europe, and CHANGES researchers are modeling those anticipated changes to assist emergency preparedness officials and to train young scientists in the risk management skills needed to respond to future disasters. More
Development, Climate Change and Clumsiness
Policy disputes over the most effective way to use development aid to cope with climate change are best resolved with solutions that are clumsy, not elegant. More
Policy Instruments for Decarbonizing Energy (Climate Governance)
The Climate Governance project compares the potential of alternative policy instruments at national and regional scales to decarbonize the world's energy supply. More
Impact of European Union Consumption on Deforestation
The EU is a major importer of food and timber products from countries with significant deforestation rates, and these European trade and consumption patterns may cause deforestation in distant lands. More
An Artificial World for Forecasting (Dream Valley)
The Dream Valley Project will develop a cross-disciplinary modeling and assessment framework for simulating complex dynamical systems and testing methods for forecasting their future behaviors. More
European Consortium for Modelling of Air Pollution and Climate Strategies (EC4MACS)
EC4MACS provides scientific and economic analyses of policies in support of Europe’s Thematic Strategy on Air Pollution and the European Climate Change Programme in order to better understand how to further reduce air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. More
Impacts of Short-Lived Air Pollutants (ECLIPSE)
ECLIPSE is conducting research to increase knowledge about emissions of ozone and aerosols, which act as short-lived climate forcers, and identify concrete, cost-effective abatement measures. More
Eco-evolutionary Dynamics of Living Systems
This project will improve models for assessing the ecological and evolutionary dynamics of living systems to allow a better understanding of human-induced impacts on the biosphere More
Eco-evolutionary Vegetation Modeling and Management
The development of eco-evolutionary models will allow scientists to better understand how plants around the world respond to climate change and disturbances such as fires and grazing. More
Improving Earth Observation Methodology (EGIDA)
EGIDA is a technical project to create a standard methodology to support GEOSS, the Global Earth Observations System of Systems, through development of evaluation processes, assessment indexes, and databases. More
Energy Use Impacts on the Environment (EnerGEO)
EnerGEO assesses the current and future impact of energy use on the environment by linking environmental observation systems with the processes involved in exploiting energy resources. More
Energy and Economic Development
Access to energy and electricity are fundamental to meeting basic human needs, and they also spur growth in income and improvements in wellbeing. IIASA researchers are studying how access to energy supply affects people’s lives and livelihoods, and how to provide energy services equitably. More
Energy and Infrastructure
Developing countries’ demand for infrastructure, including roads, electrical grids, and public water systems, is growing rapidly. Building and maintaining that infrastructure requires energy, but how much? More
Operating Energy Efficient Buildings (EnRiMa)
The project consortium is developing a Decision Support System to assist operators of complex buildings manage energy needs in a more efficient, less costly, and less CO2-intensive manner. More
Equitable Governance of Common Goods
A project to improve the regulation of open resources by translating successful small-scale, bottom-up regulations to large-scale, top-down regulations More
EuroGEOSS — A European Approach to GEOSS
EuroGEOSS contributes to the international effort to create the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) by making existing systems that gather data on forestry, drought, and biodiversity interoperable and easier to use. More
Evolutionarily Sustainable Consumption
The evolutionary consequences of fishing affect a host of heritable traits in fish populations, and IIASA researchers are developing a toolkit to allow scientists to assess these impacts. More
Modeling the Structure of Forests
The Forest Structure project is creating a model that, by encompassing a broad scale that runs from individual trees up to entire forests, will allow researchers to better understand the impact of climate change, major disturbances, and succession on forests. More
Future Impacts of Climate Change (FutureSoc)
FutureSoc is an effort to define the consequences of climate change on future human societies and examine the ability of those societies to cope with the coming changes. More
Air pollution control strategies for Chinese cities with co-benefits for climate (GAINS-City)
By linking tools developed by Chinese researchers with IIASA’s GAINS model, the project connects data about urban air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions to allow Chinese officials to develop clean air policies for Chinese mega-cities that also lead to lower greenhouse gas emissions. More
Interactions in Economic Sectors (Game Dynamics)
The goal of the Game Dynamics Project is to better understand the highly complex dynamics of interactions between players acting in different sectors with no set behavior patterns. More
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
Reducing GHG Emissions Uncertainties (GESAPU)
Research in the more than ten years since the Kyoto Protocol has shown that the methods used to measure and inventory greenhouse gas emissions have significant uncertainties and gaps. GESAPU is intended to reduce the uncertainties of GHG emissions in Poland and Ukraine. More
Sources and Sinks for Greenhouse Gases (GHG-Europe)
GHG-Europe is analyzing European agricultural and forestry lands to determine both the sources and sinks for three major greenhouse gases and determine what percentage of those gases is anthropogenic. 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
Global Economic Growth and Optimization
Using systems analysis tools to examine the drivers of economic growth, this project is developing economic scenarios to determine how best to achieve sustainable development. More
Management of Heterogeneous Dynamical Systems
The project’s goal is to understand the heterogeneous interactions of the parts of large socioeconomic systems that function across many sectors and are driven by multiple agents. More
Household Energy Transitions
Many people rely on traditional and polluting forms of fuel like wood and coal that contribute to health problems and air pollution. How do people make choices about fuel and appliances, and how can policies encourage people to switch to cleaner fuels? More
Integrated Analysis and Modeling of Land Use Efficiency and Security under Rapid Agricultural Transformation due to Urban-Rural Dynamics in China
This joint project of the National Science Foundation of China (NSFC) and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) develops an integrated methodology for investigating the interplay between urban development and ecological stress in rural mountain areas in China. More
Integrated Modeling of Management Solutions for Robust Food, Energy, and Water Security
The project, which provides policy advice to Ukraine, investigates how the complex linkages and differences between agriculture, energy, and water security can be sustainably developed and coordinated at both the spatial and temporal scales, given the potential systemic risks involved. More
Integrated Assessment of Fisheries
This project is developing tools that integrate the biological, social, and economic aspects of fishery systems to help create management systems that promote sustainable fisheries More
Integrated modeling of food, water, and energy
This project develops new and advanced models, methods and tools for supporting robust decision-making for complex problems under deep uncertainties, an interlinked spatio-temporal, multi-agent decision environment, and systemic risks. More
Climate Change and Agricultural Productivity (ISAC)
High-frequency, high-resolution imaging from new satellites is providing detailed agricultural information that will allow scientists to better monitor the impacts of drought and climate change on crops and model future agricultural productivity under different climate change scenarios. More
Life Cycle Impacts of Goods, Services, Activities (LC-IMPACT)
The LC-IMPACT project is developing methods to assess the environmental life cycle impact of a vast number of goods, services and activities. The assessments examine the environmental costs of such things as erosion caused by land use and threats from toxic substances used in production processes. More
Restructuring Systems to Limit Climate Change (LIMITS)
LIMITS is examining how to fundamentally restructure energy systems and land-use management practices on a global scale in order to limit warming from climate change to two degrees Celsius. More
Evaluating Black Carbon Cuts in Finland (MACEB)
IIASA researchers are using the GAINS model in a partnership with Finnish scientists to develop a tool by which the climate effects of reducing black carbon emissions from different economic sectors can be evaluated. More
Cutting Greenhouse Gases in Europe
IIASA researchers are using the GAINS climate model to support the European Commission’s effort to reduce greenhouse gases by 20 percent and significantly increase renewable energy use in Europe by 2020. More
Clean Air Strategies for Europe
IIASA’s Mitigation of Air Pollution & Greenhouse Gases Program (MAG) is using its modeling tools to identify strategies to assist in meeting European Union’s clean air goals. More
Integrated Assessment Modelling for negotiations under the Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution (LRTAP)
IIASA's Mitigation of Air Pollution & Greenhouse Gases Program develops modeling tools that identify strategies for European efforts to control air pollution in a cost-effective way. More
Linking Disasters for Risk Reduction (MATRIX)
Natural disasters are typically treated as individual incidents, but scientists are developing methods to link events such as earthquakes and landslides to enable policy makers to take more effective risk reduction measures. More
Creating Policy Tools for Climate Change Adaptation (MEDIATION)
MEDIATION uses case studies to provide European policymakers with scientific information and technical tools to develop improved climate change adaptation policies More
Creating Synthetic Knowledge for Complex Systems (Model Integration)
The Model Integration Project will overcome the limitations of current integrated models in studying complex systems and develop simpler models that can create synthetic knowledge and describe complex systems from different perspectives. More
Envisioning Paradigm Shifts in Society (PASHMINA)
The PASHMINA project uses complex modeling to create scenarios that envision changes in the use of energy, transportation, land, and the environment 20 to 40 years into the future. More
Atmospheric Aerosol Chemistry and Climate Change (PEGASOS)
The goal of PEGASOS is to enhance our understanding of the interactions of climate and atmospheric chemistry in the past, present and future. More
Poverty Traps
To escape from poverty traps that are caused by natural disasters, low-income households need assistance from public and private partnerships that are informed by risk analysis and based on local needs. More
Impacts of Glacial Retreat in the Andes (PRAA)
PRAA uses pilot projects in three Tropical Andes countries to help local ecosystems and economies better adapt to the many impacts of the rapid glacier retreat underway throughout the region. More
Impact of Technological Change in Europe (PROSUITE)
PROSUITE is a collaboration to develop the tools needed to predict the impact technological changes will have on Europe’s environment, economies, and social institutions over the next several decades. More
Accelerating Cuts in Greenhouse Gases (RESPONSES)
RESPONSES is a project to develop strategies that will enable European Union countries to accelerate cuts in greenhouse gas emissions and better adapt to environmental, social, and economic disruptions caused by climate change. More
Risk Adaptation in the Financial Arena
This exploratory project brings the anthropological theory of risk to bear on the financial arena and examines how “clumsy” solutions might lead to better responses to an ever-shifting risk environment. More
Improving Landslide Risk Responses (SafeLand)
SafeLand is a response to the growing risk of landslides in mountainous regions of Europe due to climate change-related increases in overall rainfall, concentrated rains over short periods, more extreme weather, and increased snowmelts in Alpine regions. More
Seven Shocks and Finland
The project is investigating the implications of seven different shocks on Finnish society, and will create a portfolio of actions that could increase the resilience in responding to the shocks. More
Systemic Risk and Network Dynamics
This project will deepen the understanding of cascading failure in networks and develop ways to lessen the risks of collapse and improve recovery. More
Systemic Risks, Security, and Robust Solutions
The project develops new and advanced models, methods, and tools for supporting robust decision-making for complex problems under deep uncertainties, interlinked spatio-temporal multi-agent decision environment, and systemic risks. More
Vision and Transition Pathways towards a Low Carbon Green Korea
How can countries transition to sustainable economy? What would it look like? What changes are needed? And how could those changes be implemented? South Korean and IIASA researchers are collaborating on a new project to find the answers that policymakers need. More
Drivers of Extreme Events
The goal of this project is to understand mechanisms leading to extreme events in complex dynamic, with special attention paid to the risk of cascading failure in networks. More
Assessment of Northern Eurasian Forests (ZAPAS)
The ZAPÁS project is intended to make space-based biomass inventory assessments more reliable for boreal forests of Northern Eurasia. More
Research Partners
IIASA works with a wide range of research partners across the globe