Researcher in Integrated Assessment Modeling

Researcher in Integrated Assessment Modeling

The Integrated Assessment and Climate Change (IACC) Research Group within the IIASA Energy, Climate, and Environment (ECE) Program is recruiting a Researcher in Integrated Assessment Modeling with an emphasis on integrated modeling of energy systems and material stocks and flows.

BACKGROUND

The ECE Program at IIASA hosts one of the world’s leading global Integrated Assessment Modeling (IAM) teams, and seeks to deepen the understanding of rapid, just, and feasible systems transformations toward environmental, social, and economic sustainability. Interdisciplinary teams within ECE use these and complementary methods to study trade-offs and synergies between multiple policy priorities and objectives, typically across multiple sectors and scales (global, regional, national, and subnational). ECE’s scientific outputs inform international and national policy efforts related to climate change (e.g., implementation of the Paris Climate Agreement) and sustainable development (e.g., pursuit of the Sustainable Development Goals).

We seek a strong candidate who can support advancing the integration of material stocks and flows into the MESSAGEix integrated assessment modeling framework as a key aspect of this broader research agenda. The Researcher will contribute to developing modeling methods and data to study the characteristics of transitions towards GHG neutrality.

This research will include, but is not limited to:

• Development and application of the MESSAGEix-Materials model, the open-source MESSAGEix modeling framework, and related software and data sets.
• Complementary, quantitative analysis of the industry sector with a focus on material cycles and linking material demand to the underlying energy services (e.g., housing, mobility).
• Analysis of the impacts of material efficiency, reuse, and recycling strategies on energy use and GHG emissions.
• Analysis of the implications of sharing economy approaches and behavioral change (e.g., modal shift in transport) on demand for materials.
• Development of low energy and material demand scenarios, through narratives incorporating all of the above phenomena.
• Design and execution of model-to-model linkages, such as between sectoral models and IAMs.

The successful candidates will work with a team of international scientists in the ECE program and other programs and groups at IIASA to further develop the MESSAGEix framework and in particular the open-source MESSAGEix-GLOBIOM model.

MAIN TASKS AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Perform in-depth literature reviews of existing technologies and investigate novel mitigation approaches. Contribute to the development of the global MESSAGEix-GLOBIOM model, the open-source MESSAGEix modeling framework, and related software tools and data sets.
• Analyze, process, and utilize large-scale panel and geospatial datasets.
• Investigate, prepare, and analyze integrated assessment model scenario campaigns in conjunction with senior researchers within the IACC and Sustainable Service Systems (S3) research groups.
• Develop and document version-controlled collaborative modeling code that allows re-processing of data and analysis of datasets and model results.
• Maintain and disseminate relevant datasets according to FAIR data principles.
• Publish relevant results in peer-reviewed journals and actively engage in dissemination efforts such as scientific conferences and workshops, stakeholder, and policy events.
• Contribute to ongoing and future projects and related deliverables, reports, stakeholder communication, and capacity building activities.

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