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IIASA and partners received the award for pioneering the use of citizen science and AI to address national data gaps on marine litter in Ghana, the first country to integrate such data into its official statistics and to monitor and use it for monitoring and reporting on the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

The OJEong Resilience Institute at Korea University (OJERI) and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) successfully held the OJERI–IIASA Symposium 2025 on April 28–29 at IIASA in Laxenburg, Austria. With the theme “Forest Fire and Water-Land Management under the Carbon (Emission) Cycle”, the symposium aimed to continue the strong partnership between IIASA and OJERI@KU in advancing cross-disciplinary research for sustainable forest and land-water management.

The intensification of existing farmland can sometimes be more harmful to local biodiversity than expanding the area covered by agricultural land, according to new research just published in Nature Ecology and Evolution.

Wealthy individuals have a higher carbon footprint. A new study published in Nature Climate Change quantifies the climate outcomes of these inequalities. It finds that the world’s wealthiest 10% are responsible for two thirds of observed global warming since 1990 and the resulting increases in climate extremes such as heatwaves and droughts.

IIASA had the great honor of welcoming His Excellency Mr. Keiichiro Asao, Minister of the Environment and Minister of State for Nuclear Emergency Preparedness of Japan, for a high-level visit and strategic dialogue with IIASA leadership and researchers.

IIASA Biodiversity and Natural Resources Program Director, Petr Havlík, has been awarded an honorary doctorate (Doctor Honoris Causa) by KU Leuven, one of Europe’s most renowned universities, in recognition of his exceptional contributions to global research in agricultural, food, climate, and environmental economics.

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Can nature restoration and economic productivity go hand in hand? A new study finds that the EU’s ambitious Nature Restoration Regulation (NRR) is essential to achieving biodiversity conservation and climate mitigation targets and that it could be implemented without compromising the supply of agricultural and forest products.

POPJUS researchers have been honored with the IPUMS International Research Award, recognizing outstanding research using IPUMS data!

At a time when climate anxiety and biodiversity loss dominate the global conversation, IIASA had the honor of hosting Emmanuel de Merode, Director of Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo, for a lecture that was as sobering as it was inspiring.

A new special issue of the Elsevier journal, Environmental Development, highlights pioneering research addressing the continent's most pressing environmental and development challenges. The issue is the result of an ongoing collaboration between IIASA and a growing network of African and international research partners, including the IIASA Sub-Saharan Africa Regional Member Organization (SSARMO).

A new climate initiative launched in Vorarlberg, Austria, aims to plant 50 trees for every child born in the region. The initiative, which will run under the patronage of IIASA Director General Hans Joachim (John) Schellnhuber, was introduced on 3 April in Rankweil.

The prestigious international forum took place from February 10 to 14 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. It brought together leading academics, policymakers, and industry experts to discuss critical global challenges in sustainability, food security, and risk management. It was also endorsed by international scientific associations in agricultural economics, agribusiness, engineering, and information research including European Association of Agricultural Economists, International Food and Agribusiness Management Association, Associzzione Internazionale di Economia Alimentare e Agro-Industriale, International Commission of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering and International Network for IT in Agriculture, Food and the Environment.

IIASA researchers are part of the organizing team for the Wittgenstein Centre Conference 2025 on 'Demographic Perspectives on Migration in the 21st Century,' which will take place from 19–21 November 2025 at the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna, Austria.

IIASA Director General Hans Joachim (John) Schellnhuber was featured in the latest episode of the ORF podcast “Neues bei Neustädter” titled, Wo ist eigentlich der Klimaschutz? (Where is climate protection, actually?).

The European Union’s Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 aims to halt biodiversity loss and restore ecosystems, but what does this mean for Europe’s wood supply? In a new study, researchers examine how different modes of implementing the strategy’s conservation targets could influence forestry and the wood-based bioeconomy in the EU.

Researchers at IIASA are studying the direct and indirect effects of climate change on health, shedding light on healthy aging drivers and metrics and analyzing interconnections between the components of multi-dimensional national well-being.

Clean air is essential for health, yet many people, especially in low- and middle-income countries, breathe polluted air every day. IIASA researchers contributed advanced modeling tools and analyses to assess the feasibility and affordability of halving global exposure to high levels of outdoor air pollution by 2040 in a new World Bank Report.

The Wildfire Climate Impacts and Adaptation Model (FLAM) from the Agriculture, Forestry, and Ecosystem Services Group (AFE) will contribute to the Fire Model Intercomparison Project (FireMIP). This collaboration provides an opportunity for FLAM to engage with the broader fire science community and contribute to the advancement of global fire modeling. 

The World Aging Data Explorer (WADE) is a state-of-the-art platform that revolutionizes our understanding of global aging trends. WADE provides easy access to the innovative dynamic metrics of aging developed at IIASA. These metrics take the changing characteristics of people into account, thereby providing policymakers, researchers, and educators with a view of aging appropriate for our changing demographic environment.