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On 3 December 2025, H.E. Ambassador Giovanni Pugliese and Scientific Counselor Amedeo Staiano of the Italian Embassy in Austria visited IIASA for discussions on strengthening scientific engagement between Italy and the Institute.

On 1 December 2025, IIASA welcomed H.E. Ian Biggs, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Australia, to the Institute for discussions on strengthening scientific cooperation between Australia and IIASA.

IIASA Energy, Climate, and Environment Program Director, Keywan Riahi, has been reappointed to the European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change for a second term from 2026 to 2030.

The Association for Forest Spatial Analysis Technologies (ForestSAT) will host its 2026 international conference in Gainesville, Florida, bringing together experts to share the latest advances in forestry, remote sensing, artificial intelligence, and geospatial technologies. Dmitry Shchepashchenko (IIASA) plans to attend and deliver presentations at the conference. He also serves as a member of its Scientific Committee.

Two recent visits by senior representatives of Peking University (PKU) to IIASA have reaffirmed and expanded the long-standing partnership between the institutions, highlighting new opportunities for joint research, academic training, and policy-relevant collaboration in environment, population, and systems sciences.

Starting on 15 January 2026 and running for two weeks, the traveling exhibition "Climate and Me" will be on display in Laxenburg, offering the public a chance to engage with new perspectives on climate action. The opening event features a keynote by IIASA Director General Hans Joachim (John) Schellnhuber, whose insights highlight the Institute’s leadership in shaping a sustainable future.

On Wednesday, 10 December, IIASA will host a class from the Vienna Sir Karl Popper school for a half-day workshop to explore systems thinking through the life cycle analysis of a chocolate bar.

In late November, IIASA Director General Hans Joachim (John) Schellnhuber visited Argentina to take part in a high-level event on urban sustainability. The visit included participation in a two-day event on climate, cities, and sustainable construction, held at the German Embassy in Buenos Aires and the University of Buenos Aires, bringing together scientific, political, and municipal actors to discuss the transformation of the construction sector and its role in climate action.

IIASA will co-host a session with the National Research Foundation (NRF) of South Africa under the title, People, planet, and possibility: systems science meets journalism for wellbeing, at the 2025 World Conference of Science Journalists in Pretoria, South Africa.

In its post-COP30 analysis, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung features insights from IIASA Director General Hans Joachim (John) Schellnhuber and other experts, arguing that the conference outcome shows how the world may now need to look beyond the 1.5°C limit.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) methods are becoming increasingly important in both science and society. In climate science - where complex biophysical and societal processes interact across diverse temporal and spatial scales, and datasets are often large, heterogenous and incomplete - AI and ML methods offer new powerful solutions.

More than you might think. A badly chosen holiday destination can leave everyone frustrated, just as poorly designed disaster plans can leave communities devastated; although the consequences are not comparable, the decision-making processes have similar characteristics. The MEDiate project is building a novel Decision Support System (DSS) – a digital toolbox which helps policy-makers test strategies before disaster strikes. IIASA is not only helping to design models and frameworks behind this system, but also ensuring that every stakeholder participates in the discussion. Even the best technical solution won’t work if there is nobody supports it.