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IIASA Deputy Director General Karen Lips participates in the 2025 Global Research Council (GRC) Sub-Saharan Africa Regional Meeting and Science Granting Councils Initiative (SGCI) Academic Symposium, held under the theme “From Regional Dialogue to Global Impact.” This annual gathering brings together research funders, policymakers, and scholars from across Africa and beyond to strengthen regional leadership in global research governance and collaboration.

Guest Research Scholar Vahideh Shirvani from the Cooperation and Transformative Governance (CAT) Research Group will present her project at the Urban Infrastructure Risk and Resilience Webinar. 

IIASA joins thousands of scientists, educators, and policymakers at the premier Earth and space science conference 15-19 December in New Orleans, Louisiana, to explore groundbreaking research, connect with global experts, and shape the future of our planet.

This seminar aims to deepen collaboration between IIASA and Comenius University, building on the Memorandum of Understanding signed earlier this year, and strengthening engagement with the Institute's Slovak National Member Organization. Taking place while applications for the Young Scientists Summer Program (YSSP) are open, it offers students and faculty a timely opportunity to learn more about IIASA and explore pathways for involvement.

The emphasis of integrated disaster and risk research has shifted from topical analysis, such as dealing with disasters associated with natural hazards, technological accidents or environmental crises, to a comprehensive analysis of interconnected and mutually interactive risk sources and crises. This interaction has often been framed in the language of “polycrisis” indicating the potentially amplifying and cascading effects of each crisis from one domain to the next. At the same time, the literature on systemic risk also includes the effects of multiple, interacting risks on the functionality and survivability of entire systems such as climate stability, cybersecurity or energy production. New approaches such as foresight, integrated risk assessment, and adaptive management, are developed and applied to cope with this new challenge.

From 10 to 21 November 2025, Brazil will have the honor of hosting the 30th Conference of the Parties (COP30) where the world's experts come together to agree on the actions to address the climate crisis, helping vulnerable communities adapt to the effects of climate change and achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.

Co-organized by the Austrian Academy of Sciences (OeAW), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and IIASA, this event marks the Austrian launch of the Human Development Report 2025 "A Matter of Choice: People and Possibilities in the Age of AI" with a keynote presentation by Yanchun Zhang, the UNDP Chief Statistician, followed by a dialogue session that will examine the transformative societal impact and implications for human agency stemming from the rapid development of artificial intelligence.

Boreal forests - the vast green belt encircling the northern hemisphere - are undergoing rapid transformation. This webinar will explore new research on the changing dynamics of the boreal biome, what these shifts mean for global climate feedbacks, and how remote sensing helps us understand the future of one of Earth’s most important ecosystems.

The NaturaConnect project, co-coordinated by Piero Visconti (IIASA) and the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), is hosting a stakeholder engagement event in Brussels to advance strategic planning for the Trans-European Nature Network (TEN-N). Organised by project partners EUROPARC Federation and WWF Central and Eastern Europe, and taking place 20 – 21 January in Brussels, the event will bring together decision-makers from across Europe to explore and contribute perspectives on the planning, governance, and financing aspects of TEN-N implementation.

The NaturaConnect project team, co-coordinated by Piero Visconti (IIASA) and the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), is meeting in Leipzig, Germany from 2-5 December 2025.

As co-organizer of the symposium hosted by the Commission on the De-Fossilization and Carbon Neutrality of the European Energy Systems (DEE) at the Austrian Academy of Sciences, IIASA's Dr. Thomas Schinko will open the event by highlighting the importance of a systemic and interdisciplinary view for a successful transformation of energy systems. Moreover, he will emphasize the necessity to foster justice, equity, and collaboration in shaping Europe’s path toward a carbon-neutral future.

Climate change research has been dominated by narratives of vulnerability and risk often overlooking the significant efforts made by human systems to build and sustain resilience.

IIASA and the College of Population Studies at Chulalongkorn University will hold an intensive training program in Bangkok that combines demographic methods, data analysis, and innovative tools for understanding population aging, education, and health.

IIASA Director General Hans Joachim (John) Schellnhuber will be the keynote speaker at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations' fifth webinar in a dynamic series focused on developing a resilient and sustainable forest-based bioeconomy. This session will explore how sustainable wood construction can serve as a nature-based solution to address multiple challenges - from the global housing crisis to climate change mitigation.

Wolfgang Lutz will join leading researchers at the Second General Meeting of the Age-It Program — Italy’s national research network on ageing — to discuss how education, ageing, and human capital shape Europe’s demographic future.

As a leading expert on population and sustainable development, Wolfgang Lutz will join a high-level expert conference bringing together decision-makers from academia, politics, civil society, and the private sector to discuss Europe’s demographic future.

Senior Research Scholar Dilek Fraisl from the Novel Data Ecosystems for Sustainability Research Group will attend the Expert Group Meeting (EGM) and Workshops on Citizen Data in Bangkok, Thailand.

The annual meeting of the LAMASUS project will take place at IIASA in October 2025. Principal Research Scholar Linda See (and LAMASUS work package leader) will discuss updates to the LAMASUS geodatabase on land use management with the consortium and the science and policy advisory board in light of new and updated geospatial data sets that have been produced.

The EuroGEO Workshop 2025 (13–15 October, The Hague) will unite Europe’s Earth Observation community under the theme “Combine, Coordinate, Cooperate – Advancing Collective Earth Intelligence.” Steffen Fritz will be presenting research from the Novel Data Ecosystems for Sustainability (NODES) research group and insights from the OEMC and ENFORCE projects.

The CASHEWS project will hold a stakeholder meeting at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in the city of Rome, which will bring together all the major global and regional Early Warning Systems (EWS) for food security.