Download F.3 External funding at IIASAand selected large externally funded

F.3
International Institute for
Applied Systems Analysis
Schlossplatz 1
A-2361 Laxenburg, Austria
Tel: +43 2236 807 0
Fax: +43 2236 71313
E-mail: [email protected]
Web: www.iiasa.ac.at
External funding at IIASA and
selected large externally funded projects at IIASA
The table on the following pages shows a selection of major project/grants at IIASA starting in 2006 through
to October 2014 (including those with UK partners). They are a snapshot of a much larger portfolio of
externally funded collaborations. Total external funding (that is, from third-party sources over and above
the National Member Organization contributions) granted to IIASA’s research directly during the 2006 to
October 2014 timeframe amounts to Euro 69 million. This is part of a total funding portfolio of some Euro
329 million of the external projects in which IIASA is involved.
The funding comes from a myriad of sources: highly competitive, peer-reviewed, international grants (e.g.,
EU Framework programs), national grants (e.g., Austrian Science Fund) with IIASA as a coordinator or
partner; partnerships with international or national agencies (e.g., UNIDO, Federal Ministries); calls for
tenders (e.g., EC DGs, Development Agencies), etc. For a complete list of funding sources, see note q, page 9
of IIASA’s latest audited accounts.
In addition to coordinating or partnering in these externally-funded projects, IIASA is also proud to host
seven grants from the European Research Council (ERC) under the Advanced, Starting and Synergy Grants
funding mechanisms. This included, in 2005, IIASA hosting one of the first recipients of the European Young
Investigator (EURYI) awards – a precursor to ERC grants and a joint initiative of the European Heads of
Research Council and the European Science Foundation (see the following table).
All third-party sponsored research proposals, grants and agreements are governed by IIASA policies and
regulations; namely that they must conform to the principles and goals of the Institute’s Charter and
strategic plan as established by the IIASA Council and any proposed research must fit within or complement
the research agenda of themes and programs approved by the IIASA Council. Further, IIASA does not
perform proprietary research and no contracts or agreements can be entered into that prohibits or restricts
IIASA’s intellectual property rights or rights to publish, grants the sponsor special or exclusive information,
etc. Lastly, when committing IIASA resources to perform projects under external funding, due account is
also taken regarding any commitments that could dilute or divert resources from IIASA fulfilling its
obligations towards its National Member Organizations.
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SELECTION OF LARGE PROJECTS AT IIASA STARTING 2006–2014
Project
GEA
Global Energy
Assessment
Initiative
(Coordinator)
EC4MACS
European
Consortium for
Modelling of Air
Pollution and
Climate Strategies
(Coordinator)
Duration/ Total
Start
Budget
(in Euro)
6 years
June 2006
6 years
Feb. 2007
6,320,013
Funders
Partners/
Collaborators
Brief Abstract
• Austrian Development Agency
• Climateworks Foundation
• Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale
Zusammenarbeit
• First Solar Inc
• Global Environment Facility
• Global Environment & Technology
Foundation
• Italian Ministry for the Environment and
Territory
• International Institute for Applied
Systems Analysis
• Petroleo Brasieiro S.A.
• Research Council of Norway
• Swedish Research Council for
Environment, Agricultural Sciences and
Spatial Planning
• Swedish Energy Agency
• United Nations Development Programme
• United Nations Environment Programme
• United Nations Foundation
• United Nations Industrial Development
Organization
• United States Environmental Protection
Agency
• World Bank
• World Energy Council
300 authors
200 reviewers
Governing Council
The Global Energy Assessment (GEA) is the first fully integrated assessment of the
global energy system to date that examines the global challenges related to energy,
as well as opportunities and strategies for industrialized, developing and emerging
economies. It is the result of the collaborative and integrated work of over 300
authors and 200 reviewers worldwide, including scientists, policy experts and
industry leaders worldwide who contributed independent, scientifically based and
policy relevant analysis of current and emerging energy issues and options.
Total
European Commission, DG Environment,
consortium: Directorate E, International Affairs & LIFE
4,417,186
IIASA:
2,227,393
GEA identifies the urgent need for a sustained and comprehensive strategy to resolve
the challenges facing sustainable development, including poverty eradication,
climate change mitigation, health, energy security and energy access.
Implementation of this strategy relies on strong commitments from policy and
decision makers for a grand transformation of the global energy system. The GEA,
launched at Rio+20 in June 2012 and published by Cambridge University Press in
September also presents a suite of pathways and potential solutions, and their costs
and benefits for society and the environment.
• Coordination Centre for Effects, Netherlands
• E3M-Lab of the National Technical University,
Greece
• Lab for Thermodynamics of the Aristoteles
University of Tessaloniki, Greece
• Inst for Agricultural Policy, Market Research
and Economic Sociology, Germany
• EuroCARE, Germany
• EMRC, Ricardo-AEA Technology
• MetroEconomica, UK
• INERIS, France
EC4MACS provides scientific and economic analyses of policies in support of Europe’s
Thematic Strategy on Air Pollution and the European Climate Change Programme in
order to better understand how to further reduce air pollution and greenhouse gas
emissions. There are important interactions and potentially large economic
synergies between climate and air quality strategies and the objectives of EU social
and economic policies. Model analyses, based on latest scientific findings and
validated data, can provide valuable information on the design of (cost-) effective
strategies that meet multiple policy objectives.
The project has developed a toolbox of well established modelling tools to explore
the synergies and interactions between climate change, air quality and other policy
objectives. The EC4MACS toolbox is now ready for scientific and economic analyses
to inform the revision of the Thematic Strategy on Air Pollution in 2013 and the
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European Climate Change Programme on climate strategies beyond 2012. The
EC4MACS toolbox informs about the costs and benefits of the various policy options
to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to further improve air quality in the
European Union while maximizing the benefits to EU energy, transport and
agricultural policies.
WATCH
Water and Global
Change
(Partner)
4.5 years
Feb. 2007
Total
consortium:
9,980,096
IIASA:
471,000
European Commission, DG Research
coordinated by Natural Environment
Research Council (NERC), Centre for Ecology
and Hydrology, UK
Total of 24 partners, including
• Austria (1 partner)
• Czech Republic (1 partner)
• Denmark (1 partner)
• France (3 partners)
• Germany (4 partners)
• Greece (1 partner)
• Italy (1 partner)
• Netherlands (3 partners)
• Norway (2 partners)
• Poland (1 partner)
• Portugal (1 partner)
• Slovakia (1 partner)
• Spain (2 partners)
• UK (2 partners: Met Office; The Chancellor,
Master and Scholars of the University of
Oxford)
The WATCH project brought together partner institutions in the hydrological, water
resources and climate communities, with the aim to (1) analyze, quantify and predict
the components of current and future global water cycles and related water
resources states; (2) evaluate uncertainties; and (3) clarify the overall vulnerability of
global water resources as they relate to the main societal and economic sectors.
IIASA provided global spatial data on key components of the water cycle from 1900
to 2100 regarding agricultural, industrial, and domestic uses. This involved scenario
projections of agriculture development and land use change as well as providing
modeling techniques and methodologies for scaling and analyzing the data. In return,
the methodologies developed in the WATCH project have enhanced IIASA’s modeling
of water resources within the program's land use and agricultural modeling
methodologies, helping it depict global land and water resource issues and potential
solutions.
As part of WATCH, IIASA was invited by the UK Research Council and the Institute
of Atmospheric Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences to give a presentation at
the China-UK Climate Change and Global Water Cycle workshop held in Beijing in
November 2008. IIASA delivered various digital spatial datasets of present and
simulated future land use shares to WATCH and delivered the harmonized world soil
database (HWSD) to the consortium.
FINE
Fisheries Induced
Evolution
(Coordinator)
3 years
July 2007
Total
European Commission, DG Fisheries and
consortium: Maritime Affairs
1,695,545
IIASA:
407,663
• Institute for Marine Research, Norway
• French Research Institute for the Sustainable
Exploitation of the Sea, France
• Technical University of Denmark, Danish
Institute for Fisheries Research, Denmark
• Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium
• University of Wales, Bangor, UK
• Fisheries Research Services, Aberdeen, UK
• University of Tromso, Norway
• Wageningen IMARES B.V, Netherlands
• University of Oslo, Norway
• Spanish National Research Council, Spain
• Portuguese Research Institute for Agriculture
and Fisheries, Portugal
• Johann Heinrich von Thünen-Institute,
Bundesforschungsinstitut für Ländliche
Räume, Wald und Fischerei, Germany
The Specific Targeted Research Project on Fisheries-induced Evolution (FinE)
analyzed the prevalence and consequence of fisheries-induced adaptive changes in
exploited fish stocks of particular relevance to fisheries management in the European
Union. This objective was realized through a carefully selected set of empirical
phenotypic case studies, the investigation of salient adaptive genetic variation, and
through the development of new quantitative models for understanding trends and
evaluating management options. The FinE project thus maintains and extends the
leading position of European research in the application of innovative evolutionary
paradigms to exploited marine eco-systems, delivering insights and
recommendations for addressing the overlooked evolutionary dimension of modern
fisheries.
SafeLand
Living with landslide
risk in Europe:
Assessment, effects
of global change,
3 years
May 2009
Total
European Commission, DG Research
consortium: coordinated by International Centre for
6,610,000
Geohazards, Norway
IIASA:
347,983
• Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, Spain
• AMRA–Analisi e Monitoraggio del Rischio
Ambientale Scarl, Italy
• Bureau de Recherches Geologiqus et Minieres,
France
SafeLand is a response to the growing risk of landslides in mountainous regions of
Europe due to climate change-related increases in overall rainfall, concentrated rains
over short periods, more extreme weather, and increased snowmelts in Alpine
regions. The project seeks to develop a better understanding of landslide triggers,
better methods for identifying high-risk areas, and improved early warning systems.
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and risk
management
strategies
(Partner)
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Universita degli Studi di Firenze, Italy
European Commission, JRC, Belgium
Fundacion Agustin de Betancourt, Spain
Aristotelio Panepistimio Thessalonikis, Greece
Universita degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, Italy
Max Planck Gesellschaft zur Förderung der
Wissenschaften, Germany
Centro Euro-Mediterraneo per i Cambiamenti
Climatici Scarl, Italy
Studio Geotechnico Italiano SRL,Italy
Universita degli Studi di Salerno, Italy
Stichting International Institute for GeoInformation Science and Earth Observation,
Netherlands
Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich,
Switzerland
Universite de Lausanne, Switzerland
C.S.G. Centro Servizi di Geoingegneria, Italy
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique,
France
King’s College London, UK
Geologische Bundesanstalt, Austria,
Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne,
Switzerland
TRL Limited, UK
Institutut Geologic al Romaniei, Romania
Geoloski Zavok Slovenije, Slovenia
The project is also creating risk-management and mitigation processes for
communities that live under the threat of landslides.
During the last century more than 16,000 people were killed by landslides in
Europe and property damage topped €1.2 billion. With climate change expected to
bring more extreme weather and faster mountain snow melts, the number of
landslides is predicted to increase. SafeLand is designed to provide improved
landslide risk assessment and management tools, as well as mitigation strategies, to
local, regional and European policymakers. The research is intended to provide
insight into future risk patterns by analyzing global changes due to both climate and
human activity. SafeLand researchers are creating an array of analytical tools that will
allow responses to landslide threats to be based on specific, local needs.
PASHMINA
Paradigm Shifts
Modelling and
Innovative
Approaches
(Partner)
3 years
Nov. 2009
Total
European Commission, DG Research
consortium: coordinated by Istituto di Studi per
2,607,193
l'Integrazione dei Sistemi (ISIS), Italy
IIASA:
319,300
• Österreichischisches Institut für
Wirtschaftsforschung, Austria
• Univerzita Karlova v Prtaze, Czech Republic
• Agencia Estatal Consejo Superior de
Investigaciones Cientificas, Spain,
• Enerdata SA, France
• Fondazione eni Enrico Mattei, Italy
• Institut für Weltwirtschaft, Germany
• MCRIT, S.L, Spain,
• Societe de Mathematiques Appliquees et de
Sciences Humaines, France
• Aarhus Universitet, Denmark
PASHMINA is an effort to anticipate and model possible paradigm shifts in the
economic, social, technological, and environmental spheres and to understand their
implications. The project creates a host of scenarios depicting major changes in
energy supplies, agriculture, land use, transportation, and the environment. A central
goal of PASHMINA is to avoid the historical tendency of seeing the future as a
continuation of the past and instead envision a future that is significantly different
from the present. IIASA’s economic, energy, and land-use models (including
GLOBIOM and BeWhere) are being integrated with models used by other project
consortium members and adapted to make long-range forecasts more sensitive to
paradigm shifts. With better models detailing an array of scenarios, policymakers can
better anticipate which options to choose and which to avoid. Examining the tradeoffs and the costs and benefits of different strategies is essential if scientists are
to identify robust solutions to problems being exacerbated by limited resources and
a changing climate.
RESPONSES
European responses
to climate change:
deep emissions
reductions and
mainstreaming of
3.5 years
Jan. 2010
Total
European Commission
consortium: coordinated by Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
3,149,659
IIASA:
395,444
• Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der
Angewandten Forschung, Germany
• Univ. of East Anglia, UK
• European Commission, Joint Research Centre,
Belgium
• Ministerie van Volkshuisverting, Netherlands
RESPONSES is a project to develop strategies that will enable European Union
countries to accelerate cuts in greenhouse gas emissions and better adapt to
environmental, social, and economic disruptions caused by climate change by
identifying a variety of strategies to minimize the threats from climate change. The
research is being conducted by a consortium of seven European research institutes
and two contributing institutes from China and India.
OSR / 15 October 2014
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mitigation and
adaptation
(Partner)
MEDIATION
Methodology for
Effective Decisionmaking on Impacts
and Adaptation
(Partner)
3.5 years
Feb. 2011
AMPERE
3 years
Assessment of
Feb. 2011
Climate Change
Mitigation Pathways
and Evaluation of
the Robustness of
Mitigation Cost
Estimates
(Partner)
Total
European Commission, DG Research
consortium: coordinated by Stichting Dienst
3,142,744
Lanbouwkundig Onderzoek, ALTERRA
IIASA:
208,892
Total
consortium:
3,149,489
IIASA:
485,980
• Agencia Estatal Consejo Superior de
Investigaciones Cientificas, Spain
• Institute of Policy and Management, Chinese
Academy of Sciences, China
• The Energy and Resources Institute, India
IIASA is leading the project’s water and agricultural investigations by conducting a
case study in Poland’s Upper Warta river basin. The challenge of the river basin, an
area facing increasing risks from climate-related floods and droughts, is developing
policies that lessen those risks while integrating the sometimes contradictory
concerns of other sectors, such as environmental protection versus economic
development. The Upper Warta study includes a baseline assessment of current
European, Polish and local policies, a vulnerability analysis that examines the effects
on water and agriculture of policies that cut carbon emissions, and finally an
appraisal of options for future policies. IIASA researchers are also involved in a case
study appraising the synergies and conflicts between European renewable energy
plans and the funding for renewable energy development as part of the European
Union Solidarity Fund.
• European Climate Forum (ECF), Germany
• European Commission, Joint Research Centre
(JRC), Italy
• Potsdam Institut für Klimafolgenforschung
(PIK), Germany
• Regional Environment Center for Central and
Eastern Europe (REC), Hungary
• SEI Oxford Office Limited, UK
• Suomen Ymparistokeskus (SYKE), Finland
• Universita Degli Studi Firenze (UNIFI), Italy
• Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM),
Spain
• Wageningen Universiteit (WU), Netherlands
MEDIATION is developing the sophisticated analytical tools needed by European
policymakers to improve adaptation to future social, economic, and physical changes
caused by climate change. The goal of the project is to enable policymakers to
answer adaptation-related questions in different political contexts, on different
geographical scales, and at different stages of policy development. The project is
intended to remedy what researchers describe as the “incomplete and fragmented”
climate change information currently available to policymakers.
In the early stages of the project, IIASA assessed the climate change adaptationrelated tools that would be needed by European policymakers at different levels of
government in different countries. Extensive interviews with policymakers were
conducted and existing adaptation policy proposals in several EU countries were
reviewed. Currently, IIASA researchers are developing databases, models, methods,
and metrics to inform economists, risk managers, agricultural specialists and other
decision makers. Among these is the CATSIM model, developed and refined over
many years at IIASA to improve financial disaster risk management. These analytical
tools will be applicable to a variety of adaptation challenges in different regions and
political contexts. The tools will not tell decision makers what to do, but will suggest
routes that may lead them to solutions.
European Commission, DG Research &
• Universiteit Utrecht, Netherlands
Innovation
• Fondazione eni Enrico Mattei, Italy
coordinated by Potsdam Institute for Climate • Institute of Communication and Computer
Research (PIK)
Systems (ICCS), Greece
• Centre for European Policy Studies, Belgium
• Societe de Mathematiques Appliques et de
Sciences Humaines, France
• Paul Shcerrer Institut, Switzerland
• Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique,
France
• Enerdata SA, France
• European Commission, JRC, Belgium
• Universität Stuttgart, Germany
• Technische Universität Wien, Austria
• Ministerie van Economische Zaken, Landbouw
en Innovatie, Netherlands
• Universite Paris i Pantheon-Sorbonne, France
• Met Office, UK
For societies to effectively cope with anthropogenic climate change, ambitious
policies are needed that can lead to long-term climate stabilization. Reaching that
goal requires the transition from carbon-intensive to low-carbon economies be
achieved as quickly as possible. To do that, extensive research is needed to identify
good “mitigation pathways” for the transition. The AMPERE project uses state-ofthe-art energy-economy and integrated assessment models to explore possible
pathways to cutting greenhouse gas emissions, plus the costs of following those
paths. Combining the results from a sizable ensemble of these models, the project
focuses on four areas: The role of uncertainty in the understanding of how the
climate will respond to anthropogenic forcing and how that uncertainty will affect
energy supplies around the world; The role of technology and innovation in the
energy sector; The role of political limits to policy such as limited regional
participation in climate change regimes; and The implications for Europe of policies
to “decarbonize” the energy sector.
Using IIASA's MESSAGE and GAINS models, researchers will analyze the effects of
different low-carbon technologies on mitigation pathways. Researchers will also look
at the effects of climate feedbacks such as a warming-induced increase in methane
released from permafrost, which in turn causes more warming. They will additionally
OSR / 15 October 2014
F.3
Monitoring
Monitoring and
assessment of
sectorial
implementation
actions (notably
related to transport,
energy and
agriculture)
(Coordinator)
2 years
Sept. 2011
REDD-PAC
4 years
Land-use modeling
Nov. 2011
at global and regional scales to support
national and regional
REDD+ policies
(Coordinator)
REDD-PAC
(cont’d)
Total
European Commission, DG
consortium: Environment/Climate Action
749,912
IIASA:
474,912
• Climate Analytics GmbH, Germany
• National Institute for Environmental Studies
Incorporated Administrative Agency, Japan
• Research Institute of Innovative Technology
for the Earth, Japan
• National Development and Reform
Commission Energy Research Institute, China
• Indian Institute of Management, India
use MESSAGE to conduct a comparative analysis of the economic costs of the various
mitigation scenarios developed as part of the project.
• The Flemish Institute for Technological
Research (VITO), Belgium
• Institut National de l’Environnement Industriel
et des Risques (INERIS), France
• Société Anonyme of Environmental and
Energy Studies and Software Development
(EMISIA), Greece
• Institute of Communication and Computer
Systems (ICCS), Greece
• Norwegian Meteorological Institute (met.no),
Norway
• Stichting Dienst Landbouwkundig Onderzoek
(ALTERRA), Netherlands
• Coordination Centre for Effects, national
Institute for Public Health and the
Environment (RIVM/CCE), Netherlands
The 2005 Thematic Strategy on Air Pollution established objectives for the protection
of human health and the environment from the adverse impacts of air pollution. In
2010, the Commission developed a work plan for a comprehensive review of the
Strategy in the period up to 2013. The Monitoring Project aims to support the
European Commission in the review of the Strategy and its related legal instruments
on ambient air quality and national emission ceilings through modeling of emission
baselines and scenarios for different policy options and their related impacts.
Total
Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature • UNEP-World Conservation Monitoring Centre
consortium: Conservation and Nuclear Safety, Germany
(WCMC)
4,542,098
• Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciasis
IIASA:
(INPE)
2,161,031
• Central African Forests Commission
(COMPIFAC)
Policies for achieving REDD+ goals (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and
Forest Degradation plus conservation of forest carbon stocks, sustainable
management of forests and increase of forest carbon stocks) under the UNFCCC will
have major impacts on land use. Land-use in turn affects economic returns and
ecosystem services. Thus, understanding how different policies could influence land
use and its effects is essential to support informed decision-making. The REDD-PAC
project will develop novel models, data and analysis that can show the multiple
effects of land use policies with the goal of identifying REDD+ policies that are
economically efficient and socially fair and can safeguard and enhance ecosystem
values and help meet the goals of the Convention on Biological Diversity
(CBD). These models and tools will help to identify ways of achieving a balance
between the multiple goals of REDD+ for each specific regional case.
The IIASA global land use model (GLOBIOM), will be used to support high
resolution REDD+ planning. GLOBIOM projects land use change by spatially modeling
supply and demand for competing agricultural, bioenergy and forest commodities.
The project will use GLOBIOM for analysis of different land use policies (including
those addressing biodiversity priorities), with a focus on Brazil and the member
countries of the Central African Forests Commission (the Congo Basin). Results of
GLOBIOM will be used to assess the economic and biodiversity impacts of different
REDD+ policy options, and their potential contribution to achieving the CBD’s Aichi
Targets, economic growth or food security. Regional partners will lead in identifying
and defining policy options for REDD+ and land use. The partners will develop
regional versions of GLOBIOM and will improve the models through comparison with
land use data and results of other regional studies. The project will provide a global
OSR / 15 October 2014
F.3
forum for sharing and improving global data on forests and deforestation drivers and
developing best practices for national REDD+ and land-use planning. Novel data,
tools and analysis will be provided in the project’s website. The project will also
support work on multiple benefits from REDD+ with national partners in further six
countries (China, Ecuador, Peru, the Philippines, Uganda and Vietnam). The work will
be tailored to the specific needs of each country.
COMPLEX
Knowledge Based
Climate Mitigation
Systems for a Low
Carbon Economy
(Partner)
4 years
Oct. 2012
IIASA:
231,360
Total
consortium:
5,428,606
European Commission, DG Research &
Innovation
coordinated by University of Newcastle Upon
Tyne (UNEW), UK
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
ENHANCE
Enhancing risk
management
partnerships for
catastrophic natural
disasters in Europe
(Partner)
4 years
Dec. 2012
Total
consortium:
5,992,085
IIASA:
462,950
European Commission, DG Research &
Innovation
coordinated by Stichting VU-VUMC,
Netherlands
Universiteit Twente, Netherlands
Sigtunastiftelsen, Sweden,
Sveriges Lantbruksuniversitet, Sweden
Universita degli Studi di Padova, Italy,
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique,
France
Sintef Energi AS, Norway
Observatorio para una Cultura del Territorio
Asociacion, Spain
Stockholms Universitet, Sweden
Scientific Foundation Nansen International
Environmental and Remote Sensing Centre,
Russian Federation
Nederlandse Organisatie voor Toegepast
Natuurwetenschappelijk Onderzoek–TNO,
Netherlands
Institut National de Recherche en Sciences et
Technologies pour l’Environnement et
l’Agriculture, France
Electricite de France S.A., France
University ofSussex, UK
BJC3 Basque Centre for climate Change, Spain
Max Planck Gesellschaft zur Förderung der
Wissenschaften E.V., Germany
• Fondazione eni Enrico Mattei, Italy
• Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht Zentrum für
Material- und Küstenforschung GmbH,
Germany
• London School of Economics and Political
Science, UK
• United Nations International Strategy for
Disaster Reduction, Switzerland
• Universite Catholique de Louvain, Belgium
• European Business and Innovation Centre
Network, Belgium
• Universitat Politecnica de Valencia, Spain
• The Chancellor, Masters and Scholars of the
University of Oxford, UK
• HKV Lijn in Water BV, Netherlands
• European Commission, JRC, Belgium
• Instituto Superior de Agronomia, Portugal
The transition to a low carbon economy by 2050 will involve irreversible stepchanges in the cultural, economic and natural domains. Current models of climate
change and carbon emission assume the immediate past is a reasonable guide to the
future. They struggle to represent the complex causal structures and timeasymmetries of many socio-natural systems. The science of complex systems
distinguishes linear from non-linear dynamics. Simpler systems can often be
satisfactory described by linear models, but complex systems require non-linear
models that can capture more of the characteristics of such systems, such as
thresholds, feedback loops, avalanche effects, and irreversibility.
COMPLEX will integrate the quasi-classic models of meso-scale processes with our
best understanding of fine-grained space-time patterns and the system-flips that are
likely to occur in the long interval between now and 2050. We believe the subnational region is the key point of entry for studying climate change and its causeeffect interrelations. It is small enough to be sensitive to local factors, large enough
to interact with supra-national agencies and stable enough to be historically and
culturally distinctive. In addition to undertaking case studies in Norway, Sweden,
Netherlands, Spain and Italy, We will develop a suite of modeling tools and decisionsupport systems to inform national and supra-national policy and support
communities across Europe working to make the transition to a low-carbon
economy.
The main goal of the ENHANCE project is to develop and analyze new ways to
enhance society’s resilience to catastrophic natural hazard impacts, by providing new
scenarios and information in selected hazard cases in close collaboration with
stakeholders, and by contributing to the development of new multi-sector
partnerships (MSPs) to reduce or redistribute risk. Innovation in MSPs is essential, as
(ineffective) cooperation between public, private and civil society institutions often
leads to failures in risk management. The ENHANCE proposal is unique as it studies
the potential for new MSPs for managing different catastrophic hazards, related to
heat waves, forest fires, flood, drought, storm surge, and volcanic eruptions. Key to
successful partnerships is a common understanding of risks and the implications of
proposed risk reduction instruments. Therefore, ENHANCE facilitates a participatory
process to develop MSPs in cases studies at different geographical and spatial scales
in Europe. The main products of ENHANCE are a) a harmonized dynamic scenarios of
vulnerability, exposure, and hazard at the pan-European scale, using existing
information and new probabilistic approaches for multi-hazards, heat-waves, forest
fires, floods, droughts, storm surges, and volcanic eruptions; b) guidelines and key
features for enhancing MSP interaction in successful resilience enhancement and risk
reduction, pre-tested via participatory workshops on risk-based scenarios; c)
OSR / 15 October 2014
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• Academia de Studii Economice din Bucuresti,
Romania
• Haskoli Islands, Iceland
• Universität Potsdam, Germany
• The Chancellor, Masters and Scholars of the
University of Cambridge, UK
• Willis Limited, UK
• Empresa Mixta Valenciana de Aguas SA, Spain
• Opentrack Railway Technology GmbH, Austria
• Perspectives GmbH, Germany
• Agenzia Regionale Prevenzione e Ambiente
Dell’Emilia-Romagna, Italy
• Wadden Sea Forum e.V., Germany
• Metacortex – Consultoria e Modelacao de
Recursos Naturais SA, Portugal
methods for linking MSPs to novel scientific risk scenarios and assessments; d) a
toolbox of economic instruments and non-structural mitigation measures at the
national, regional, and local levels developed in a participatory manner and aimed at
assessing risk and increasing societal resilience; and e) policy recommendations to
the EU and HFA signatories delivered through a dissemination platform for enhancing
resilience from high political levels to local communities. ENHANCE offers a team that
consists of scientific research institutes, public policy organizations including UNISDR,
private sector specialists and an NGO that ensure societal relevance and the
feasibility of implementation of our deliverables. Within 10 case studies public and
private partners will be approached to develop MSPs and to test our methods.
Finally, the project will ensure that its products will impact target groups through a
dissemination strategy, developed in close collaboration with members of an
external advisory board.
ForestGov DRC
3 years
Improving Forest
Jan. 2013
Governance through
independent
monitoring in the
Democratic Republic
of Congo
Total
Norwegian Agency for Development
consortium: Cooperation (NORAD)
1,814,799
IIASA:
1,678,478
• Observatoire de la Gouvernance Forestière en Growing resource demand worldwide threatens the future of tropical forests. In the
DRC deforestation and degradation are driven by extraction of minerals, timber and
RDC (OGF)
• Steinbeis-Transferenzentrum FeLis (STZ-FeLis) agricultural products for both domestic and international consumption, as well as
population increases at the local level that increases the prevalence of slash and burn
agriculture, artisanal logging and charcoal collection. Current efforts to stem
deforestation in the DRC remain limited, fragmented and under supported. This
project brings together various stakeholders (e.g., government ministries, civil
society, industry, etc.), to form an independent forest governance alliance to work
towards providing transparency on (1) the actors, causes of deforestation and
sustainable responses as well as (2) the inclusion of emissions from deforestation and
forest degradation in the international REDD+ process. The aim is to build an
independent alliance that can efficiently monitor forest governance in the DRC and
to promote the conservation of natural forests to maintain their carbon storage
capacity.
BESTGRID
2.5 years
Renewables Grid and April 2013
Public Acceptance
Total
consortium:
1,956,872
IIASA:
149,180
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Germanwatch e.V., Germany
Stichting BirdLife Europe, Netherlands
Elia Szstem Operator S.A., Belgium
50Hertz Transmission GmbH, Germany
TenneT TSO GmbH, Germany
National Grid International Limited, UK
Terna Rete Elettrica Nazionale S.p.A., Italy
The objective of the BestGrid project is to improve the standard of risk
communication practices in power system infrastructure siting decisions in Europe.
The project as a whole will center around three pilot projects, led by transmission
service operators in Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands, and coordinated by the
Renewables Grid Initiative. In these case studies, the developers of new grid projects
will apply state of the art practices for risk communication, with the expectation of
measurable results in terms of greater public acceptance for the proposed
developments. IIASA will lead the scientific aspect of these pilot projects, in two
respects (1) by conducting the initial literature review and stakeholder consultation
to identify the risk communication practices that are appropriate for each case study,
and (2) by overseeing the collection of performance data from the pilot projects, and
analyzing those data in order to quantify the impacts of the intervention.
SEFIRA
Socio-economic
implications for
individual responses
to Air Pollution
Total
European Commission, DG Res&Innov
consortium: coordinated by Università degli Studi di
998,000
Urbino, Italy
IIASA:
100,000
•
•
•
•
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium
Consiglio Nayionale Delle Ricerche, Italy
Pragma SRL, Italy
Sykola Glowna Handlowa W Warszawie,
Poland
The SEFIRA Project has the objective of creating a European coordination of transdisciplinary scientific and socioeconomic resources in order to support the review
and implementation of air quality legislation by the European Commission (EC) led by
DG Environment. The EC has now given increased attention to the socioeconomic
dimension of air quality policies in order to improve their effectiveness and
3 years
June 2013
European Commission, Executive Agency for
Competitiveness and Innovation (EACI)
coordinated by The Climate Shop UG
(Renewables-Grid-Initiative), Germany
OSR / 15 October 2014
F.3
Policies in EU +27
FloodResilience
Scientific Insight for
Building Long Term
Flood Resilience:
Devising Smart,
Equitable and
Incentive-based
Flood Risk
Management
Portfolios
• Lunds Universitet, Sweden
• King's College London, UK
4 years
July 2013
S2BIOM
3 years
Delivery of susSept. 2013
tainable supply of
non-food biomass to
support a "resourceefficient" Bioeconomy in Europe
1,200,000
Zurich Insurance Company Ltd
Z Zurich Foundation, Switzerland
Total
consortium:
3,999,629
IIASA:
161,045
European Commission, DG Research &
Innovation coordinated by Fachagentur
Nachwachsende Rohstoffe e.V. (European
and International Cooperation), Germany
acceptability. SEFIRA will coordinate some of the best scientific and socioeconomic
resources and will review air quality policies and legislation at the interface between
environmental, economic and social sciences in order to achieve a deeper
understanding of these complex issues. Individual behaviors and choices will be
analyzed in a socioeconomic context ranging from the local to the European level.
The main fields involved in the action will be atmospheric sciences, environmental
and legal sociology, anthropology, geography and economics.
The integration of disciplines, the relationship with the most relevant stakeholders
and an effective coordination between the SEFIRA consortium and other European
projects in the same field will be a priority. The project strategy will support the
development of a new European appraisal of problems and resources in the field,
and will deploy a pilot survey and a test of policy implementation by innovative
models of individual choices analysis and ecosystem services valuation.
The toll from natural disasters, such as floods, landslides, cyclones, earthquakes and
tsunamis is increasing, as populations rise and more assets are at risk. At the same
time climate change is changing the frequency and intensity of climate-related
events. While researchers cannot predict the precise location and timing of
disastrous events, they can estimate the risk of such events. One of the key hazards
is flooding and, as a consequence, flood resilience in many regions and for many
different actors, is at stake. Flood resilience is understood as the ability to cope with
impacts of floods in a manner that allows essential system functions, such as income
creation, provision of services and stability, to be maintained. IIASA researchers are
working to determine actions pay off, and how countries and local governments can
make smart investment decisions that lead to increased flood resilience and to fewer
deaths and less destruction.
• Imperial College of Science, Technology and
Medicine, UK
• Stichting Dienst Landbouwkundig Onderzoek,
Netherlands
• Albert-Ludwigs-Universitaet Freiburg, Ger.
• Joanneum Research Forschungsgesellschaft,
Austria
• European Forest Institute, Finland
• Metsantutkimuslaitos, Finland
• Teknologian Tutkimuskeskus VTT, Finland
• Alma Mater Sudiorum-Universita di Bologna,
Italy
• Stichting Energieonderyoek Centrum
Nederland, Netherlands
• Vlaamse Instelling voor technoloisch
Onderyoek n.v., Belgium
• IINAS - Internationales Institut für
Nachhaltigkeitsanalysen und -strategien,
Darmstadt, Germany
• BVBA Clever Consult, Belgium
• Syncom Forschungs- und
Entwicklungsberatung GmbH, Germany
• Wirtschaft und Infrastruktur GmbH & Co
The objectives of the S2BIOM project are to develop Strategies, Roadmaps and Tools
(SRT) in support of decision-making at local, regional and Pan-European level for a
sustainable and reliable supply of non-food biomass feedstock. This will involve
economic, social, environmental and logistics research building on various relevant
data and projects. Specific objectives include: (1) Provision of easy information
access to current status biomass resources in EU27; Western Balkans, Ukraine and
Turkey; (2) Common operating data, models, and tools representing the entire
Bioenergy supply chain; (3) Incorporation of models and tools for environmental,
economic and social impact analysis; (4) Support for policymaking at local, national,
regional and EU27 levels by visualizing the outcomes of proposed policies; (5)
Support for future industrial investments; and (6) Improvement of public awareness,
education, and outreach. IIASA will assist in developing a tool for assessing
sustainable biomass potentials in Europe which will be used to assess optimal logistic
chains of biomass supply.
OSR / 15 October 2014
F.3
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
ECONADAPT
3 years
Economics of climate Oct. 2013
adaptation in Europe
Total
consortium
2,928,618
IIASA
354,334
Planungs KG, Germany
B.T.G. Biomass technoloy Group BV, Neth.
Ince Iniyiative Centro Europea - Segretariato
Esecutivo, Italy
Instytut Uprawy Nawoyenia I gleboznawstwa,
Panstwowy Instytut Badawczy, Poland
Medunarodni Centar Za Odrzivi Razvoj
Energetike voda I okolisa, Croatia
Ege Universitesi, Turkey
Institut National de la rechereche
Agronomique, France
JRC–Joint research Centre – European
Commission, Belgium
Fundacion Cener-Ciemat, Spain
Funcacion Circe Centro de investigacion de
recursos y consumos energeticos, Spain
Gozdarski Institut Slovenije, Slovenia
Centre for Research and technology Hellas,
Greece
Renewable Energy Agency civic organization,
Ukraine
University of Belgrade - Faculty of mechanical
Engineering, Serbia
Melvyn Frank Askew – Census Bio, UK
Biomass Research BV, Netherlands
European Commission, DG Research &
• Ecologic Institut Gemeinnützige GmbH,
Innovation coordinated by University of Bath,
Germany
UK
• BC3 Basque Centre for Climate Change – Klima
Aldaketa Ikergai, Spain
• Stichting VU-VUMC, Netherlands
• Potsdam Institut für Klimaforschung, Germany
• Agricultural University of Athens, Greece
• Danmarks Meteorologiske Institut, Denmark
• Centro Euro-Mediterraneo sui Cambiamenti
Climatici Scarl, Italy
• Wageningen University, Netherlands
• University of East Anglia, UK
• Paul Watkiss Associates LTD, UK
• Univerzita Karlova V Praze, Czech Republic
• JRC – Joint research Centre – European
Commission, Belgium
More reliable quantification of the costs of climate-change consequences and
assessment of adaptation options is required to further substantiate the economic
case for adaptation to climate change. Research will develop and apply new and/or
improve existing methodological frameworks for assessing the costs, benefits and
effectiveness of climate change adaptation policies and measures in Europe at
different levels. Research should focus on the reduction of uncertainties (and
cascading uncertainty), increased comparability across different time horizons
(short-, medium- and long-term) and geographical scales, better reflection of both
monetary and non-monetary costs and benefits of adaptation, and quantification of
additional costs of measures/policies due to adaptation to climate change (e.g. for
measures/policies that are not solely motivated by the need to adapt to climate
change, it is important to be able to better estimate the increase in cost due to
climate change as compared to a baseline scenario). Moreover, research should
provide methodologies for scaling up information generated and collected at the
local level in a bottom-up approach and improve the understanding of the indirect
effects of adaptation measures/policies on the overall economy and on growth and
jobs
IIASA will contribute both in terms of advancing methodology of quantifying the
costs of climate-change consequences and assessment of adaptation options and
also carry out impact assessments and adaptation studies with focus on agriculture,
bioenergy and forestry, and in looking into extremes, mostly against the background
of floods. IIASA will also contribute to the development of methods for taking into
OSR / 15 October 2014
F.3
account uncertainty in decision-making, but also to strategies for uncertainty
reductions, which will be valued economically.
Consensus
2.5 years
Multi-Objective
Oct. 2013
Decision Making
Tools through Citizen
Engagement
Total
consortium:
2,588,995
IIASA:
387,923
European Commission, Communications
Networks, Content and Technology
coordinated by Institute of Communication
and Computer Systems, National Technical
University of Athens
SIGMA
3.5 years
Stimulating
Nov. 2013
Innovation for
Global Monitoring of
Agriculture and its
Impact on the
Environment in
support of
GEOGLAM
Total
European Commission, DG Research &
• Stichting Dienst Landbouwkundig Onderzoek,
consortium: Innovation coordinated Vlaamse Instelling
Netherlands
8,750,133
Voor Technologisch Onderzoek N.V., Belgium • Universite Catholique de Louvain, Belgium
IIASA:
• Centre de Cooperation International En
800,984
rechereche Agronomique Pour le
developpement, France
• Universiteit Twente, Netherlands
• Food and Agriculture Organization of the
United States, Italy
• Space Research Institute of Russian Academy
of Sciences, Russian Federation
• Інститут космічних досліджень
Національної академії наук України та
• Національного космічного агентства
України, Ukraine
• JRC – Joint research Centre – European
Commission, Belgium
• National Satellite Meteorological Center,
• IBM Israel – Science and technology LTD,
Israel
• Athens Technology Center SA, Greece
• Universitat Konstanz, Germany
• Oxfam Italia Onlus, Italy
• WWF – World Wide Fund For nature,
Switzerland
• European Union Road Federation, Belgium
Policy makers are faced on a daily basis with different policy choices and objectives
that, more often than not, are subject to inherent conflicts, implying underlying
trade-offs that need to be taken into account. For example, if a policymaker wishes
to construct a road, he has to consider a number of factors, inter alia, the cost of the
investment, its socioeconomic return in terms of social cohesion and economic trade,
environmental aspects, safety considerations and so on. How can a policymaker be
certain that he has calibrated these different elements in a balanced way? In what
could be potentially the solution, the Consensus project will strive to model existing
real world cases and deliver the tools that can, in an easy and comprehensive
manner, provide policy makers with optimal choices based on a number of relevant
criteria. The project will cover two important case studies:: Biofuels and Climate
Change (EU Renewable Energy Directive), and Trans-European Transport Networks
(TEN-T). In performing the studies, the Consensus Project will involve citizens in the
policymaking scheme since their input can potentially become highly valuable in
various stages, from the gathering of the necessary data, through formulating public
opinion as one of the objectives in the model, to eventually playing the role of
exploring the attained tradeoffs and contributing to their weighting.
For the case study on European bioenergy policies, IIASA will contribute by using
the IIASA developed GLOBIOM model which has been extensively used for
assessments of the greenhouse gas (GHG) emission effects of bioenergy expansion .
GLOBIOM is a global economic model of the agricultural and forestry sectors. In this
project, IIASA will improve the biodiversity representation by implementing the
WCMC data, and will include a food security module, which enables to go beyond the
average per capita calorie availability in the assessments of the social impacts of
biofuels. This will enable evaluating the bioenergy targets against a minimum five
criteria: energy security, greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity loss, farmers income
(approximated through producer prices development), and food security.
By 2050, global agricultural productivity will need to increase with at least 70%. In
order to guarantee food production for future generations, agricultural production
will need to be based on sustainable land management practices. At present, earth
observation based (global) crop monitoring systems focus mostly on short-term
agricultural forecasts, thereby neglecting longer term environmental effects.
However, it is well known that unsustainable cultivation practices may lead to a
degradation of the (broader) environment resulting in lower agricultural productivity.
As such, agricultural monitoring systems need to be complemented with methods to
also assess environmental impacts of change in crop land and shifting cultivation
practices. It is thereby important that this is addressed at the global level. The
Stimulating Innovation for Global Monitoring of Agriculture and its Impact on the
Environment in support of GEOLAM (SIGMA) Project is a global partnership of 23
expert institutes in agricultural monitoring, with a strong involvement in GEO and the
Global Agricultural Geo-Monitoring (GEO-GLAM) initiative. SIGMA aims to develop
innovative methods, based upon the integration of in-situ and earth observation
data, to enable the prediction of the impact of crop production on ecosystems and
natural resources. Dedicated capacity building activities are also planned to increase
national and international capacity to enable sustainable management of agriculture.
OSR / 15 October 2014
F.3
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
China
Deimos Imaging SLU, Spain
Sarmap SA, Switzerland
Eftas Fernerkundung Technologietransfer
GmbH, Germany
GeoVille Informationssysteme und
datenverarbeitung GmbH, Austria
Geosas Consulting service PLC, Ethiopia
Regional Centre for Mapping of Resources for
Development , Kenya
Instituto nacional de tecnologia Agropecuaria,
Argentina
Gisat S.R.O., Czech Republic
SarVision B.V., Netherlands
Centre Regional Agrhymet, Niger
Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth –
Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
One central contribution IIASA is making to SIGMA is to the work package which
deals with a Global Environmental Impact Assessment of Agricultural land use
change using the GLOBIOM model. Increasing global agricultural production will
result in either intensification of agriculture or conversion of other land uses into
agriculture. Both will have a strong impact on the environment. The overall aim
of WP 5 is to develop robust methods to assess the environmental impact of
agriculture in the future, in particular on biodiversity, nutrient balances, GHG
emissions and water use. Further involvement of IIASA in SIGMA is on the spatial
data infrastructure side to enable the free and open flow of data derived from
remote sensing and in-situ observations, producing a global environmental
stratification to support global yield gap analysis as well as leading the effort of a
global in-situ data gap analysis. Moreover, IIASA will provide expert feedback and
crowdsourcing tools using the geo-wiki and the geo-wiki mobile (smartphone based)
platform to improve essential global datasets (e.g. a global cropland mask) and the
amount of in-situ data with respect to land cover and land-use. IIASA also plays an
important role in then capacity building activities of the SIGMA project.
PMPS
2 years
Project Monitoring & Jan. 2014
Policy Scenarios
362,500
International Fund for Agricultural
Development (IFAD)
The overall aim of the project is to take advantage of the most up-to-date Earth
Observation technologies to provide IFAD an advanced monitoring platform for its
project and to provide support to IFAD strategic vision through analysis of policy
scenarios on future agricultural development in Central Africa and how smallholder
farming can be influenced in this regions by some specific programs. The objectives
are to undertake a land use change analysis at selected IFAD project sites to
determine if past projects have been successful and what the impact on the
environment was; and to develop a methodology which would allow assessing the
impact from different development pathways on small holders at a large scale.
WFaS
Water Futures and
Solutions: World
Water Scenarios
Initiative
1.5 years
Jan. 2014
300,873
Austrian Development Agency (ADA)
As a key component of the larger IIASA WFaS Initiative, the WFaS Fast-Track Analysis
is a 1.5 year project that will use the collaborations and partnerships of WFaS to
develop the first set of consistent, multi-model integrated scenarios across the foodwater-energy-climate nexus, with guidance from the WFaS stakeholder process. It
will compile estimates of the future availability of water resources (in space and
time) and changes in demand across sectors under various scenarios of climate
change and selected shared socio-economic development pathways. The project will
enhance current scientific understanding of global water challenges, including major
uncertainties, using qualitative descriptions, quantitative projections based on
comparisons, and expert opinion and analysis of available information.
ALPS5
Modeling
Technology and
Behavioral Adoption
Decisions in IAM
Frameworks
6 months
July 2014
108,798
Research Institute of Innovative Technology
for the Earth (RITE)
This project focuses on actor heterogeneity and interactions as fundamental drivers
of the dynamics of change of large complex systems. Actor heterogeneity is
empirically well documented. First of all, adoption decisions do not occur
simultaneously, but are a temporal process. The diffusion literature thus represents
the first perspective on actor heterogeneity by differentiating between innovators,
early adopters, (early and late) majority, and finally adoption laggards. The second
perspective on actor heterogeneity is a sociological and economic one. Actors differ
with respect to their characteristics (such as education and income for individuals, or
size and technological competence for firms), which in turn are important
determinants of early or late adoption of technologies and practices. A third
perspective on actor heterogeneity can be obtained from transaction and knowledge
economics: access to and processing of knowledge and the ensuing ease or difficulty
OSR / 15 October 2014
F.3
of arriving at decisions are another important source of actor heterogeneity and are
additional important explanatory variables to explain heterogeneity in adoption
decisions, i.e. in technology diffusion.
OSR / 15 October 2014
F.3
EUROPEAN RESEARCH COUNCIL (ERC) EXECUTIVE AGENCY GRANTS HOSTED AT IIASA
FutureSoc
5 years
Forecasting Societies Mar. 2009
Adaptive Capacities
to Climate Change
(Coordinator)
Total
consortium:
2,438,402
IIASA:
2,361,202
European Commission, European Research
Council (ERC) Executive Agency
• Chulalongkorn University, Thailand
FutureSoc is an effort to define the consequences of climate change on future
human societies and examine the ability of those societies to cope with the coming
changes. Although there is ongoing research assessing the impact of future climate
change on the Earth’s physical systems, there are few studies on the likely impacts of
global change on human well-being. FutureSoc is an effort to define the likely
consequences of future climate change for human societies and define what
capacity those societies will have to adapt to the changes. The study uses a
multidisciplinary approach to answer questions about our ability to adapt and should
inform policy makers about what paths to follow and what first steps to take in
implementing adaptation strategies.
The study examines global long-term projections of human capital (population by
age, sex and education level) as a key element of adaptive capacity. It also analyzes
three multi-national studies of key factors involved in past “vulnerability and
adaptation” events –the Sahelian drought in North Africa, Hurricane Mitch in Central
America, and the Asian tsunami of 2004. FutureSoc includes case studies of the
future adaptive capacity of the Phuket region of Thailand, India’s Nicobar Islands,
and the island of Mauritius in the southwest Indian Ocean.
COHORT (ACC)
The demography of
skills and beliefs in
Europe with a focus
on cohort change
(Coordinator)
5 years
Oct. 2009
981,415
European Commission, European Research
Council (ERC) Executive Agency
The central research theme of this proposal is the study of social change (skills,
productivity, attitudes and beliefs) in Europe along cohort lines and as a function of
changing age composition. Using demographic methods, age-specific and cohortspecific changes shall be quantitatively disentangled. The impact of migration flows
as well as fertility differentials combined with intergenerational transmissions will be
taken into account. It is expected that viewed together, these analyses will result in
significant new insights and represent frontier research about likely social and
economic challenges associated with ageing and demographic change in Europe and
the appropriate policies for coping with them.
Desertection
9 Months
Social challenges of
Jan. 2013
trans-Mediterranean
renewable power
cooperation
147,735
European Commission, European Research
Council (ERC) Executive Agency
Developed countries must completely decarbonize their power
systems by mid-century if the world is to avoid dangerous climate change,
and developing countries will have to follow soon thereafter. This will almost
certainly include heavy reliance on renewable energy sources, and could
include complete reliance. In the context of such a transition, both sound
technical and economic analysis and current events suggest that some
degree of cooperation and power system integration between Europe and the
neighboring Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region will be attractive, will
likely occur, and may even be essential in order to overcome European land
constraints. However, the prospect of such cooperation raises a set of related
social and governance issues that so far remain under-researched. The goal of this
project is to address those challenges, based on the application of the most
appropriate research methods, be they qualitative or quantitative, empirical or
modeling-oriented. The answers will contribute to the social science literature on
sustainable development, ecological modernization, and transitions governance.
They will also provide timely insights to policy-makers facing the need to make
OSR / 15 October 2014
F.3
strategic choices by the end of this decade.
Re-ageing
Reassessing Ageing
from a Population
Perspective
(Coordinator)
5 years
April 2013
2,249,996
European Commission, European Research
Council (ERC) Executive Agency
Life expectancies in the EU have increased significantly over the past decades and
are expected to continue increasing. Age-specific health statuses have also generally
been improving. In contrast, the concepts that demographers have used to analyze
age and ageing have remained largely static and have rendered current demographic
tools inadequate for the analysis of ageing at the population level in the 21st century
EU. A better understanding of age and ageing, for both science and policy, requires
new tools and new approaches. This project will comprehensively reassess
population ageing based on innovative alternative definitions of age and ageing
pioneered at IIASA. The new tools will allow age-specific characteristics of people to
change over time. Two of the most important of these characteristics are remaining
life expectancy and health status. The project will examine the extent to which
alternative measures of age can serve as proxies for perceived life spans and how
this can help to better understand future patterns of behavior among elderly
populations. The new tools will also allow evaluating future changes in policies,
such as increases in pension ages. Applications will be primarily to Europe but also to
selected countries experiencing rapid population ageing. The results will be of
socioeconomic and political importance for the future restructuring of European
pension and health systems.
CrowdLand
Harnessing the
power of
crowdsourcing to
improve land cover
and land-use
information
5 years
April 2014
1,397,200
European Commission, European Research
Council Executive Agency (ERC)
• Kenyan Agricultural and Livestock Research
Institute (KALRO), Kenya
Information about land cover, land use and the change over time is used for a wide
range of applications such as nature protection and biodiversity, forest and water
management, urban and transport planning, natural hazard prevention and
mitigation, agricultural policies and monitoring climate change. Furthermore, high
quality spatially explicit information on land cover change is an essential input
variable to land use change modelling, which is increasingly being used to better
understand the potential impact of certain policies. The amount of observed land
cover change also serves as an important indicator of how well different regional,
national and European policies have been implemented. This research project will
assess the potential of using crowdsourcing to close these big data gaps in
developing and developing countries with a number of case studies and different
data collection methods. The overall research objectives are to (1) test the potential
of using social gaming to collect land use information; (2) test the potential of using
mobile money to collect data in developing countries; (3) understand the data
quality collected via crowdsourcing; and (4) apply advanced methods to filer crowdsourced data in order to attain improved accuracy.
IMBALANCE-P
Managing
Phosphorous
limitation in a
nitrogen-saturated
Anthropocene
6 years
Sept. 2014
Total
consortium:
13,600,579
IIASA:
2,999,865
European Commission, European Research
Council Executive Agency (ERC)
coordinated by Universitat Autonoma De
Barcelona Edifici, Centro De Investigacion
Ecologica Yaplicaciones Forestale,
Bellatera, Spain
• Universiteit Antwerpen, Belgium
Commissariat A L Energie Atomique Et Aux
Energies Alternatives, France
Phosphorus (P) is an earthbound and finite element and the prospect of constrained
access to mineable P resources has already triggered geopolitical disputes. In
contrast to P, availabilities of carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) to ecosystems are rapidly
increasing in most areas of the globe. The resulting imminent change in the
stoichiometry of available elements will have no equivalent in the Earth’s history and
will bear profound, yet, unknown consequences for life, the Earth System and
human society. The IMBALANCE-P project team of four leading researchers in the
fields of ecosystem diversity and ecology, biogeochemistry, Earth System modelling,
and global agricultural and resource economics, is formidably positioned to address
this Earth System management challenge by providing improved understanding and
quantitative foresight needed to formulate a range of policy options that will contain
OSR / 15 October 2014
F.3
the risks and mitigate the consequences of stoichiometric imbalances. IMBALANCE-P
will integrate some of Europe's leading integrated assessment and Earth system
models, calibrated using ecosystem nutrient limitation data obtained from field
experiments. The project will establish an international process of science-based Pdiplomacy.
OSR / 15 October 2014