The International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)

The International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) is an international research organization that conducts policy-oriented research  into problems that are too large or too complex to be solved by a single country or academic discipline:

• problems like climate change that have a global reach and can be resolved only by international cooperative action, or
• problems of common concern to many countries that need to be addressed at the national level, such as energy security, population aging, and sustainable development.

Located in Austria near Vienna, IIASA is sponsored by its National Member Organizations in Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas. It is independent and completely unconstrained by political or national self-interest.

IIASA’s research investigates the critical issues of global environmental, economic, technological, and social change that we face in the twenty-first century. The researchers, some 200 mathematicians, social scientists, natural scientists, economists, and engineers, develop assessment and decision-support methodologies, global databases, and analytical tools to study the issues. IIASA concentrates its research efforts within three core research themes:

• Energy and Climate Change;
• Food and Water;
• Poverty and Equity.

Under the leadership of Dr. Markus Amann, IIASA's Mitigation of Air Pollution and Greenhouse Gas programmehas developed the RAINS and GAINS integrated assessment models for air pollution and greenhouse gases. It applied them, inter alia, for the scientific support of the CAFE programme of the European Commission (2000-2005), for the development of the EU National Emission Ceilings directive (1998-1999), the EU Acidification Strategy (1997), and various protocols of the UNECE Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution, e.g., for the Gothenburg Protocol in 1999. The RAINS air pollution model has been implemented for Asia, and an implementation of the greenhouse gas GAINS model for China and India is currently underway. The programme hosts the Centre for Integrated Assessment Modelling (CIAM) of the European Monitoring and Evaluation Programme (EMEP) of the Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution and acted as a partner of the European Topic Centre on Air and Climate Change (ETC-ACC) of the European Environment Agency (EEA). It is involved in a wide range of EU funded research activities, i.a., as the leader of the subproject on Atmospheric Sustainability of the FP6 Network on Excellence on Atmospheric Composition Change (ACCENT).