Description of the organisation
The International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) is a non-governmental, non-profit research organization conducting interdisciplinary scientific studies on environmental, economic, technological, and social issues in the context of human dimensions of global change. The institute has about 450 employees and research associates, who are nationals of about 50 countries. Sponsored by 22 National Member Organizations in Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas, IIASA researchers have a long tradition of generating methods and tools useful to both decision makers and the scientific community. IIASA’s independent non-governmental status allows it to provide non-political and unbiased scientific insight. Since its inception in 1972, IIASA has been a hub of successful international scientific collaboration, and has built a distinguished track record of cutting-edge research.
The Evolution and Ecology Program (EEP) at IIASA is an internationally respected hub for research into fisheries-induced evolution, complex adaptive systems, cooperation evolution, adaptive dynamics theory, and theoretical speciation research. Since its inception in 1997, the Program has produced more than 30 publications in Nature and Science. Several of the affiliated senior research scholars have h-indices in excess of 40 (ISI Web of Science) and 60 (Google Scholar).
Expertise particularly relevant for the project
The Evolution and Ecology Program (EEP) at IIASA has more than 20 years of experience in analysing anthropogenic impacts on living marine resources. In particular, the program has pioneered research on fisheries- induced evolution, i.e., on rapid contemporary evolutionary adaptations caused by the exploitation of fish stocks. The associated scientific expertise available in the program extends from marine ecology and fisheries science, over life-history theory, adaptive dynamics theory, and quantitative genetics theory, to ecological modelling, network theory, and common-goods governance. Members of the program have been the founding chairs of the international expert group WGEVO (Working Group on Fisheries-Induced Evolution) representing this field within the advisory system of the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark. The WGEVO-based research consortium has worked on calibrating life-history models for more than 60 fish stocks from around the world to enable estimating the anthropogenic selection pressures these stocks are experiencing.
For more information visit IIASA website.