ASA Program aims to discover, develop, and deploy new, more effective, and efficient ways of infusing systems science into policy and decision making for sustainable development.
Despite numerous success stories, many policies and decisions that currently aim to deal with global change are not sufficiently informed by cutting-edge science. Among the major barriers that prevent the effective input of science into policy are perceived shortfalls in agility, realism, and relevance of the current generation of methods and models from the standpoint of end users. To address these barriers, ASA strives to advance agile, realistic, and relevant systems analytical tools and methods, and facilitate a shared understanding of the capabilities and limits of these tools and methods with end users. Consequently, ASA’s efforts span the full range, from advancing research methods and tools of systems analysis to innovating at the interface between policy- and decision making, as well as with society at large.
ASA Program’s major objectives are:
- To innovate approaches and tools to analyze increasingly systemic, social-ecological risks and support decisions aimed at enhancing resilience and facilitating sustainability transitions and transformations.
- To further the capacity of agile, on-demand systems analysis underpinned by a suite of modeling frameworks of appropriate complexity.
- To mobilize multiple sources of data and the power of data science to diagnose and identify solutions to reduce vulnerabilities and risks.
- To advance feasible and effective ways of engagement with policymakers, the private sector, and citizens.
- To enhance trust and shared understanding of systems analysis methods and tools, in particular, through open science.
Projects
Staff
News

29 November 2023
Embracing Ecological Perspectives, Tools, and Models to Navigate the Digital Economy

29 November 2023
Integrating Sustainability as a New Dimension for Competition Policy

28 November 2023
Promoting Effective Data Stewardship for Interdisciplinary Research in Austria
Events
30 November 2023 IIASA
TRUST SI Workshop: Empower, Engage, Trust - Building Bridges between Science and Society
28 November 2023 Wageningen Economic Research, The Hague, The Netherlands
2023 LAMASUS Annual Meeting
21 November 2023 Bocconi University, online
SYRR researcher, Elisa Calliari, providing insight and advice on tackling the climate crisis in the run-up to negotiations at COP28.
Focus

04 December 2023
Empowering global decision makers through impactful engagement with the North Africa Applied Systems Analysis Centre Diploma Program
Several IIASA researchers provided valuable input and presented workshops at the North Africa Applied Systems Analysis Center's Diploma Program earlier this year. IIASA researcher Ali Kharrazi shares his insights from this impactful engagement.

13 November 2023
Empowering youth to spearhead the energy transition
The newly established International Vienna Energy and Climate Forum provided an opportunity to discuss best practices and present solutions to tackle climate change and achieve a green energy transition. Hossein Hassani and Nadejda Komendantova share their insights from a fireside chat at the event that focused on the role of young people in clean energy transitions.
Publications
Friedlingstein, P., O'Sullivan, M., Jones, M.W., Andrew, R.M., Bakker, D.C.E., Hauck, J., Landschützer, P., Le Quéré, C., Luijkx, I.T., Peters, G.P., Peters, W., Pongratz, J., Schwingshackl, C., Sitch, S., Canadell, J.G., Ciais, P., Jackson, R.B., Alin, S.R., Anthoni, P., Barbero, L., Bates, N.R., Becker, M., Bellouin, N., Decharme, B., Bopp, L., Brasika, I.B.M., Cadule, P., Chamberlain, M.A., Chandra, N., Chau, T.-T.-T., Chevallier, F., Chini, L.P., Cronin, M., Dou, X., Enyo, K., Evans, W., Falk, S., Feely, R.A., Feng, L., Ford, D.J., Gasser, T. , Ghattas, J., Gkritzalis, T., Grassi, G., Gregor, L., Gruber, N., Gürses, Ö., Harris, I., Hefner, M., Heinke, J., Houghton, R.A., Hurtt, G.C., Iida, Y., Ilyina, T., Jacobson, A.R., Jain, A., Jarníková, T., Jersild, A., Jiang, F., Jin, Z., Joos, F., Kato, E., Keeling, R.F., Kennedy, D., Klein Goldewijk, K., Knauer, J., Korsbakken, J.I., Körtzinger, A., Lan, X., Lefèvre, N., Li, H., Liu, J., Liu, Z., Ma, L., Marland, G., Mayot, N., McGuire, P.C., McKinley, G.A., Meyer, G., Morgan, E.J., Munro, D.R., Nakaoka, S.-I., Niwa, Y., O'Brien, K.M., Olsen, A., Omar, A.M., Ono, T., Paulsen, M., Pierrot, D., Pocock, K., Poulter, B., Powis, C.M., Rehder, G., Resplandy, L., Robertson, E., Rödenbeck, C., Rosan, T.M., Schwinger, J., Séférian, R., Smallman, T.L., Smith, S.M., Sospedra-Alfonso, R., Sun, Q., Sutton, A.J., Sweeney, C., Takao, S., Tans, P.P., Tian, H., Tilbrook, B., Tsujino, H., Tubiello, F., van der Werf, G.R., van Ooijen, E., Wanninkhof, R., Watanabe, M., Wimart-Rousseau, C., Yang, D., Yang, X., Yuan, W., Yue, X., Zaehle, S., Zeng, J., & Zheng, B. (2023). Global Carbon Budget 2023. Earth System Science Data 15 (12) 5301-5369. 10.5194/essd-15-5301-2023. Fierro, L., Giri, F., & Russo, A. (2023). Inequality-constrained monetary policy in a financialized economy. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 216 366-385. 10.1016/j.jebo.2023.10.031. Jones, C.D., Ziehn, T., Anand, J., Bastos, A., Burke, E., Canadell, J.G., Cardoso, M., Ernst, Y., Jain, A.K., Jeong, S., Keller, E.D., Kondo, M., Lauerwald, R., Lin, T.‐S., Murray‐Tortarolo, G., Nabuurs, G.‐J., O’Sullivan, M., Poulter, B., Qin, X., von Randow, C., Sanches, M., Shchepashchenko, D. , Shvidenko, A., Smallman, T.L., Tian, H., Villalobos, Y., Wang, X., & Yun, J. (2023). RECCAP2 Future Component: Consistency and Potential for Regional Assessment to Constrain Global Projections. AGU Advances 4 (6) e2023AV001024. 10.1029/2023AV001024. Msangi, H.A., Waized, B., Lohr, K., Sieber, S., & Ndyetabula, D.W. (2023). Development outcomes of land tenure formalization under customary and statutory land tenure systems in Tanzania: a multinomial endogenous switching regression approach. Agriculture & Food Security 11 (1) 10.1186/s40066-022-00403-3.