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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.
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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
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IIASA Connect is bringing together our NMO network and the Strategic Initiative researchers.
Projects
Just Transitions to Net-Zero Carbon Emissions for All (JustTrans4ALL)
fairSTREAM
Tools for Raising and UnderStanding Trust in systems science through citizen engagement (TRUST)
Resilience of Ecosystem Services provided by Intact and Sustainably managed Terrestrial ecosystems (RESIST)
Staff
Katya Perez Guzman
Researcher (NODES, SI)
Sandra Brozek
Program Assistant (NODES, SI)
Steffen Fritz
Program Director and Principal Research Scholar (SI); Principal Research Scholar (NODES)
Holger Hoff
Guest Research Scholar (SI)
News
03 February 2023
Exceptional young scientists awarded
IIASA is proud to announce the winners of the 2022 Young Scientists Summer Program (YSSP) awards. The awards provide financial support for three exceptional young scientists to return to IIASA for an additional three months of research.
20 January 2023
Austrian Federal Minister for Education, Science, and Research visits IIASA
IIASA recently welcomed Austria's Federal Minister for Education, Science, and Research, Martin Polaschek, to discuss ongoing research projects and explore potential collaborations between the institute and the Austrian government.
29 April 2022
FairSTREAM updates
In 2021, the fairSTREAM project was selected as one of the first high impact Strategic Initiatives at IIASA. Below is an update on what the project has achieved to date.
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
Striving for excellence and designing truly innovative solutions in science requires many creative minds from different disciplines and parts of society to work together.
Publications
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.
Clercq-Roques, R. (2022). Coupled dynamics of biodiversity loss and undernutrition in eastern Madagascar: a participatory agent-based model. IIASA YSSP Report. Laxenburg, Austria: IIASA
See, L. , Sturn, T., Karanam, S., Subash, A., McCallum, I. , & Fritz, S. (2022). Combining a rapid image classification app with artificial intelligence through the Picture Pile Platform for citizen science. In: ECSA Conference, 5-8 October 2022, Berlin.
Zanaga, D., Van De Kerchove, R., Daems, D., De Keersmaecker, W., Brockmann, C., Kirches, G., Wevers, J., Cartus, O., Santoro, M., Fritz, S. , Lesiv, M. , Herold, M., Tsendbazar, N.-E., Xu, P., Ramoino, F., & Arino, O. (2022). ESA WorldCover 10 m 2021 v200. 10.5281/zenodo.7254221.