Professional development

Participants will learn to use models and structured processes to engage policymakers and scientific experts in joint problem solving. Faculty include scholars from IIASA, Princeton University, the University of Southern California, the Sloan Foundation, and Aalto University. The course is delivered in partnership with IIASA's Capacity Development and Academic Training Unit and the Advancing Systems Analysis research program.

Short Course 2026  

Decision making and negotiation:
Applications to complex global challenges 

14-16 July 2026 | IIASA, Laxenburg, Austria 

Participants will: 

• Apply structured decision tools to real policy problems 
• Engage with scientific and policy experts 
• Work on complex international case studies 

Amid rapid technological advancement and unprecedented global connectivity, the international community is confronting urgent challenges and conflicts. Their resolution depends on international cooperation informed by  complex, science-intensive analysis, at a time when the multilateral system for deliberation and negotiation is increasingly falling short in facilitating collective action. Howard Raiffa, IIASA’s first Director and a pioneer of  decision science and negotiation analysis, envisioned a role for the Institute that would use those and other systems analysis tools to build bridges, both between nations through collaborative research and between scientists and decision makers.

IIASA’s expertise and neutral status can support cooperative efforts to unravel complexity, reduce uncertainty or insure against irreducible uncertainty, account for multiple objectives, and develop mutually beneficial policies. In the spirit of Howard Raiffa, this short course is a pilot effort to test and refine a curriculum of the tools and processes needed for science-based public policy and diplomacy in the 21st century, both classical decision and negotiation methodologies and the novel approaches emerging from Artificial Intelligence applications. These tools will be building blocks for a trusted network of scientists, policy-makers, and science advisors who can adapt and apply analytical methods to resolving disputes in the evolving environments of the 21st century.

Course Objectives: Learn how to (a) organize feasible structured engagement of decision makers and stakeholders in decision, negotiation, and systems analysis to  ensure realism, relevance, and impact of analyses; (b) use and adapt decision science methods as a tool to rationalize debate on complex, controversial issues; and (c) bridge the gap between science and policy through the application of models, tools, and processes from decision science, as appropriate in the AI environment.

Rationale: Research like that provided by IIASA and other national and international institutions is intended to inform policy. The policy relevance and impact of research increases when decision makers and stakeholders are engaged throughout the analysis process. This three-day short course uses the case study method to provide examples of how this can be done, by using decision analysis, negotiation analysis and other systems analysis tools, and demonstrating processes and techniques for engaging decision makers and stakeholders. Discussion will explore the adaptations of these methodologies and their application in the AI environment.

Participants: This is a pilot short course, attended by YSSP students, members of the IIASA research community, and selected external experts and policy and science advisors. Participants may be nominated by members of the IIASA, decision science, and negotiation communities, and selection will be made by the Raiffa Academy organizing committee. Selections will be made on a rolling basis, beginning in May, until capacity is reached.

Benefits to Participants: Participants from IIASA, both YSSPers and research staff, will benefit from learning about processes that combine analysis methods and tools with structured engagement of decision makers and stakeholders, and exploring how to apply and combine classical tools with AI in their policy relevant research. External short course participants, particularly policy makers and science advisors, will benefit from an improved understanding of how decision analysis-informed interactions between analysts and stakeholders can help bridge the science-policy gap.

Next Steps: This pilot short course will inform the design of future Raiffa Academy offerings for policy makers, science advisors, negotiators, and scientific researchers whose work related to complex policy decisions and negotiations can be enhanced by incorporating elements of the Raiffa tradition. Future courses will integrate classical decision, negotiation, and behavioral analysis with evolving AI approaches into frameworks for structuring decisions in policy contexts. The discussions and interactions with the participants will bring their diverse experience to the assessment of the approach taken in the short course, and suggest instructional methodologies for the future, particularly with respect to the emerging role of AI in decision making.

In conjunction with the Short Course, the first recipient of the Howard Raiffa Fellowship in Negotiation and Decision Science will be awarded to an early career researcher with interests in the application of decision and negotiation analysis to critical international challenges