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DEPT FOR R/PPR Helen Zoltanski, OES/SAT Hodgkins, STAS Reynolds, 
Please also pass to Special Adviser to the Under Secretary for 
Democracy and Global Affairs 
White House for OSTP, Please also pass to NSF 
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TAGS: KSCA NAS AORC PGOV AU
SUBJECT: IIASA Council Selects New Deputy Director and Chairman 
 
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SUMMARY 
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¶1.  The IIASA Council held its annual meeting on November 17-18 in 
Laxenburg, where it made some personnel decisions triggered by the 
selection of American Detlof von Winterfeldt as IIASA's ninth 
director, effective January 1, 2009.  The Council, which consists of 
representatives of the 18 National Member Organizations (NMOs), was 
briefed on the status of the scientific staff, research highlights, 
the Young Scientists Summer Program (YSSP), and membership and 
financial issues.  End Summary. 
 
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New Leadership 
-------------- 
 
¶2.  The selection of Detlof von Winterfeldt - a German-born American 
professor of public policy and management at University of Southern 
California - to the Directorship, required Prof. Simon Levin to step 
down as Chairman of the IIASA Council, because IIASA, by tradition, 
does not have a director and chairman from the same country.  In a 
closed-door session, the Council selected Peter Lemke of Germany to 
take over the chair of the IIASA Council effective January 1.  The 
Council also nominated Acting Deputy Director Nebojsa Nakicenovic to 
be Deputy Director.  Current Acting Director Sten Nilsson was 
elected Honorary Scholar in recognition of his years of 
contributions to the Institute, as were retiring Council members 
from Finland, the Netherlands, and Russia. 
 
 
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Scientific Staff and 
Research Highlights 
--------------------- 
 
¶3.  Acting Director Sten Nilsson reported that the scientific staff 
of IIASA has stabilized at approximately 1,100 person-months after 
several years of growth.  The Egyptian NMO representative lamented 
that there were no Egyptian scientists on the staff, and the acting 
director indicated that the Directorate was aware of the issue, but 
that to date no qualified Egyptian scientists had applied to join 
the staff.  The same applied to Estonia. 
 
¶4.  The top research priorities, by projected 2008 funding, are: 
 
-- Atmospheric Pollution and Economic Development (EUR 915,000) 
-- Evolution and Ecology (EUR 829,000) 
-- Global Energy Assessment (EUR 645,000) 
-- Risk and Vulnerability (EUR 566,000) 
-- Forestry (EUR 440,000) 
-- Land Use Change and Agriculture (EUR 380,000) 
 
IIASA's projected research budget for 2008 is just over EUR 7.2 
million, which includes EUR 2.7 million in partner funds remitted by 
IIASA to the European Commission.  The research budget in 2007 was 
EUR 5.7 million, and the majority of the EUR 1.5 million increase is 
accounted for by an additional EUR 925,000 in partner funds from the 
EC for forestry projects and a four-fold increase in the budget for 
the Global Energy Assessment, a major research undertaking that will 
feed into the next round of global climate change projections and 
global energy policies. 
 
-------------------------- 
Strategic Planning Process 
-------------------------- 
 
¶5.  IIASA is beginning a strategic planning process that will focus 
on the long-term structure of priorities of IIASA.  This process 
will accelerate in May, when the Council meets again.  There was a 
long discussion on how the Young Scientist Summer Program (YSSP) 
might be adjusted to accommodate concerns of greater national 
representation.  Some suggestions included soliciting corporate 
sponsorship to help with the costs of scientists from poorer 
countries, increasing the allocation of slots to new NMOs, and 
making the timing of the program more flexible, particularly for 
scientists from the southern hemisphere, whose participation in the 
June-August program conflicts with the requirements of their 
academic calendar.  The South African representative suggested 
starting a January program for southern hemisphere scientists, 
and/or instituting regional YSSP programs. 
 
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No New Members 
in Sight 
-------------- 
 
¶6.  Acting Director Nilsson provided a summary of IIASA efforts to 
attract new member organizations, which he admitted were not bearing 
fruit.  The priority for many years has been to win the return of 
the U.K., France, and Canada, founding members that left the 
organization.  Nilsson said little progress had been made, although 
a visiting lecture by U.K. Chief Scientist John Beddington on 28 
November might perhaps open the door to more talks with the 
British. 
 
¶7.  Efforts to broaden the geographic scope of IIASA's membership 
were similarly dim, although the best prospect was perhaps Chile, 
with whom IIASA has had interactions with the Conference on 
Integrated Science and the Center for Mathematical Modeling.  IIASA 
had discussions with Brazil and Mexico, but suffered from IIASA's 
relative obscurity in the region.  Much work was needed in the area 
of awareness-raising.  IIASA is meeting with Turkey's Scientific and 
Technological Research Council early next year, hosted a surprise 
visit by Romanian officials this year, and had had a dialogue with 
Nigeria. 
 
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Assessments Increased, 
Two Countries in Arrears 
------------------------ 
 
¶8.  Kurt Komarek, the Austrian NMO representative and chairperson of 
the financial committee, reported that an 8 percent increase in 
contributions had been assessed for 2008, bringing the total 
contribution to EUR 8.742 million.  Every country except Japan and 
Germany had increased their payment.  Estonia and Ukraine were 
behind in their contributions, and the Council passed decisions that 
could ultimately lead to their relegation to observer status - in 
Estonia's case as soon as early 2009.  The U.S. National Science 
Foundation transferred the U.S. assessment of EUR 1.944 million just 
days before the Council meeting.  The U.S. is the only "Category A" 
contributor; the eight "Category C" contributors (EUR 648,000) are 
Austria, Finland, Germany, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Russia, and 
Sweden.  China contributes EUR 324,000 and the remaining eight 
members (Egypt, Estonia, India, Republic of Korea, Pakistan, Poland, 
South Africa, and Ukraine) are assessed less than EUR 150,000 per 
year. 
 
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Next Meetings and 
Conference 
----------------- 
 
¶9.  The next regular Council meeting will take place in June 2009, 
and will be followed the next day by a conference aimed at engaging 
NMO Committee members in the research planning process.  The full 
U.S. NMO Committee plans to attend the June meeting.  The Council 
also decided to have a special one-day meeting in March 2009, in 
conjunction with the IIASA Science Advisory Committee, to take part 
in the development of the strategic vision on which the research 
plan for 2011-2015 will be based.  In addition, the Council has 
scheduled the next IIASA Conference for May 31-June 2, 2010, with 
the theme Science and Global Change.  The last conference in 
November 2007, marking IIASA's 35th anniversary, attracted the 
participation of Jeffrey Sachs and Thomas Schelling, among other 
distinguished guest lecturers, and was a huge success. 
 
 
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COMMENT 
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¶10.  IIASA is potentially entering a golden age, as its primary 
research focus on climate change and the environment is at the 
center of the global policy debate.  An underlying theme of the 
meetings was the tension between the political and scientific 
missions of the organization.  IIASA was established in 1973 with a 
mission to bridge ideological and political differences through 
joint scientific endeavor.  The end of the cold war and the 
emergence of climate change on the global agenda have shifted the 
emphasis toward science.  We will continue to promote the political 
mission -- the recent membership of India and Pakistan was a 
positive development -- by urging IIASA to broaden the participation 
of scientists from around the world.  We encourage, in particular, 
the Council's efforts to explore innovative approaches beyond the 
traditional national member organization (NMO) model, which 
effectively precludes the participation of otherwise qualified 
scientists who happen to come from countries with immature 
scientific communities. 
 
¶11.  We also welcome the Council's efforts to give the Institute a 
more solid financial footing by increasing the endowment fund and 
exploring new sources of funding, such as corporate endowments, with 
the caveat that the independence and scientific integrity of the 
Institute be preserved.  By shoring up its finances and broadening 
participation, IIASA can better fulfill its mission to provide 
interdisciplinary scientific studies that influence global policy. 
End comment. 
 
SCHULTE