Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
08UNVIEVIENNA627
2008-11-28 16:39:00
UNCLASSIFIED
UNVIE
Cable title:  

IIASA Council Selects New Deputy Director and Chairman

Tags:  KSCA NAS AORC PGOV AU 
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DE RUEHUNV #0627/01 3331639
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P 281639Z NOV 08
FM USMISSION UNVIE VIENNA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 8741
INFO RUEHVI/AMEMBASSY VIENNA 1268
RHEHAAA/WHITE HOUSE WASHDC
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UNCLAS UNVIE VIENNA 000627 

SIPDIS

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
USDA for Forest Service
DOE for Office of Science
DEPT FOR USAID
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KSCA NAS AORC PGOV AU
SUBJECT: IIASA Council Selects New Deputy Director and Chairman

-------
SUMMARY
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UNCLAS UNVIE VIENNA 000627

SIPDIS

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
USDA for Forest Service
DOE for Office of Science
DEPT FOR USAID
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KSCA NAS AORC PGOV AU
SUBJECT: IIASA Council Selects New Deputy Director and Chairman

--------------
SUMMARY
--------------


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.

--------------
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.


--------------
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.

--------------
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.

--------------
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.

--------------
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.


--------------
COMMENT
--------------


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