The Sustainable Service Systems (S3) Research Group within the Energy, Climate, and Environment (ECE) Program at IIASA is actively seeking for a talented candidate to contribute to the development and expansion of our city-scale agent-based modeling framework. This role offers the opportunity to collaborate with a diverse team of international scientists who are dedicated to advancing state-of-the-art scenario modeling and assessment.

The ECE program at IIASA is dedicated to addressing complex global challenges related to energy systems, climate change, and environmental sustainability. Within the program, the cities transformation research theme focuses on understanding and assessing transformation pathways in urban areas. As part of our ongoing efforts, we are seeking a highly qualified candidate to join our team and contribute to this important research agenda.

The role

The successful candidate will join the Urban Futures Hub within the ECE Program, focusing on advancing the understanding and assessing how cities and urban systems can lead climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts from local to global scales. This role will involve contributing to the development and expansion of a city-scale agent-based model tailored to explore cities transformation pathways. Specifically, the candidate will engage in:

• Development and expansion of the BENCH agent-based model, an open-source ABM modeling framework, along with related software and datasets.
• Data gathering and complementary quantitative and qualitative analysis of various factors influencing cities transformation pathways, in particular low energy demand pathways, including individual behavioral and lifestyle changes, social and cultural dynamics, technological and infrastructural improvements and usage, and institutional and political contexts. This will involve examining policy levers and assessing their impacts on human wellbeing.
• Designing, implementing, and analyzing low energy demand scenarios, crafting narratives that incorporate the multifaceted phenomena mentioned above.
• Establishing model-to-model linkages, such as integrating sectoral demand models with Integrated Assessment Models (IAMs), providing a comprehensive understanding of the complex system.

• Contribute to the development of a conceptual comprehensive model of cities transformation by identifying relevant methods from the literature, sourcing appropriate data/measures from diverse sources, and implementing analysis with a high degree of rigor.
• Contribute to the development and expansion of a city-scale agent-based model, including but not limited to refining model architecture, integrating new features, and ensuring model validation.
• Collect, process, and manage large (spatial) datasets for model calibration, ex- and post-analysis, ensuring data integrity and quality throughout the process.
• Contribute to the application and development of low-energy demand scenarios, crafting narratives and conducting analyses to explore various pathways towards sustainable urban development.
• Engage in ongoing and future projects, collaborating with team members and external partners, and actively participate in external fundraising and grant applications related to cities transformation and low energy demand and their implications for broader sustainable development issues.

Further Information