The Advancing Systems Analysis (ASA) Program welcomes expressions of interest from researchers at all career stages who wish to collaborate with us in advancing data, methods, and models as well as inter- and trans-disciplinary research to tackle the complexity of pressing sustainability challenges.
There is a vast amount of knowledge about the climate crisis, its impacts as well as the growing number of mitigation and adaptation options. The challenge, however, is to get people to engage and absorb this knowledge, so that they can then act accordingly. Video games are one exciting way to talk about sustainability issues and involve people who may otherwise not be reachable by such topics. Games are also a great tool to depict the interconnections between Earth’s systems and demonstrate how changes in one system can alter another.
Systems thinking entails asking fundamental questions: "Where does it come from?" and "Where is it going?" Using the journey of chocolate, from the sun-drenched cocoa plantations to the sweet bars that we all know and love, IIASA researchers guide young learners through the practical applications of systems thinking and life-cycle analysis in our everyday lives. The overarching objective is to encourage students to adopt a perspective focused on relationships and connections, rather than isolating individual components.
The Population and Just Societies Program (POPJUS) focuses on major societal challenges and delivers insights into current and future population sizes, structures, and distributions that are fundamental to understanding human impacts on ecosystems and simultaneously, the impact of environmental changes on populations.