
The Strategic Initiatives (SI) Program engages in active horizon scanning to identify initiatives of high strategic impact in order to continuously push the boundaries of systemic analyses.
The program works closely with the IIASA National Member Organizations (NMOs) to identify NMO specific research interests and needs, and leverage the expertise available across the institute to break new ground in systems research and applications while also establishing and building strategic partnerships. IIASA strategic initiatives are time-bound and set up via periodic competitive, rigorously scrutinized, internal calls for proposals.
Initiatives are selected based on their ability to draw on cross-program expertise and expand the IIASA research portfolio beyond that identified in the research plans of other programs. The initiatives pursued under the auspices of the program are typically of value and interest to several or all NMOs and serve as a vehicle to better align the research interests of NMOs and IIASA, albeit with a clear focus on themes identified in the IIASA strategy.
The objectives of a Strategic Initiative include:
- Leverage cross-program expertise and expand IIASA’s research portfolio beyond that identified in research plans of other Programs.
- Lead to high strategic impact scientific outputs
- Be a vehicle to better align NMOs and IIASA’s research interests, albeit with a clear focus on themes identified in IIASA’s strategy
- Act as a magnet for external co-funding
- Be set up via a formal call for proposals with a defined selection process and evaluation criteria.

Strategic Initiatives Program Impact:
- SI activities lead to wide NMO engagement through opportunities to co-design overarching SI research themes as well as project proposals
- Until now 4 SI projects (FairSTREAM, JustTrans4All, RESIST, TRUST) have been funded with active, strong input from NMO countries
- SI provides opportunities for young and mid-career female researchers to take up the role as PI or Co-PI, thus increasing the number of women in leading positions: 3 SI projects are women-led and 1 project has a female Co-PI
- SI facilitates cross-program collaboration that would otherwise not take place: Funded projects involve around 40 IIASA researchers from 11 research groups and 5 programs

IIASA Connect is bringing together our NMO network and the Strategic Initiative researchers.
Projects
Staff
News

03 February 2023
Exceptional young scientists awarded

20 January 2023
Austrian Federal Minister for Education, Science, and Research visits IIASA

29 April 2022
FairSTREAM updates
Events
Focus

03 November 2022
How do droughts affect the ability of trees to absorb CO2?
Jaideep Joshi highlights the results of a recent study in which he and his colleagues looked into the impacts of the novel environmental conditions that plants are exposed to today as a result of the changing climate.

20 September 2022
Achieving socio-ecological resilience in the Anthropocene: opportunities and challenges
Florian Hofhansl writes about an upcoming IIASA research initiative and its successful inauguration at a recent conference of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation.
08 September 2022
Co-development – more than just a buzz word

Publications
Schulze, K., Malek, Ž., Shchepashchenko, D. , Lesiv, M. , Fritz, S. , & Verburg, P.H. (2023). Pantropical distribution of short-rotation woody plantations: spatial probabilities under current and future climate. Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change 28 (5) 10.1007/s11027-023-10066-5.
Fritz, S. , Barasso, C., Ehrmann, F., Lesiv, M. , McCallum, I. , Meyer, C., Laso Bayas, J.C. , & See, L. (2023). Opening up FAIR in-situ land-use reference data: current gaps, obstacles and future challenges. In: EGU General Assembly 2023, 23-28 April 2023, Vienna.
Mosnier, A., Javalera-Rincón, V. , Jones, S.K., Andrew, R., Bai, Z., Baker, J., Basnet, S., Boer, R., Chavarro, J., Costa, W., Daloz, A.S., DeClerck, F.A., Diaz, M., Douzal, C., Howe Fan, A.C., Fetzer, I., Frank, F., Gonzalez-Abraham, C.E., Habiburrachman, A.H.F., Immanuel, G., Harrison, P.A., Imanirareba, D., Jha, C., Jin, X., Ghosh, R.K., Leach, N., Lehtonen, H., Lotze-Campen, H., Low, W.S., Marcos-Martinez, R., McCord, G.C., Molla, K.G., Monjeau, A., Navarro-Garcia, J., Neubauer, R., Obersteiner, M. , Olguín, M., Orduña-Cabrera, F. , Pena, A., Pérez Guzmán, K. , Potashnikov, V., Rämö, Ja., Ramos, F.M., Rasche, L., Gallardo, R.R., Schmidt-Traub, G., Selomane, O., Singh, V., Smith, A., Soterroni, A.C., Sperling, F., Steinhauser, J. , Stevanovic, M., Strokov, A., Thomson, M., van Oort, B., Vittis, Y., Wade, C., Winarni, N.L., Woldeyes, F.B., Wu, G.C., & Zerriffi, H. (2023). A decentralized approach to model national and global food and land use systems. Environmental Research Letters 18 (4) e045001. 10.1088/1748-9326/acc044.
Tubiello, F.N., Conchedda, G., Casse, L., Pengyu, H., Zhongxin, C., De Santis, G., Fritz, S., & Muchoney, D. (2023). Measuring the world’s cropland area. Nature Food 10.1038/s43016-022-00667-9.
FABLE (2022). National food and land mitigation pathways for net zero. Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture & Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) , Montpellier/Paris, France.