MATISSE: Methods and Tools for Integrated Sustainability Assessment, for European Commission, DG Research
The purpose of MATISSE is to achieve a step-wise advance in the science and application of Integrated Sustainability Assessment (ISA), by:
- developing Best Practice Guidelines for Integrated Sustainability Assessment that address the development, use and application of tools and methods for ISA across a wide range of contexts;
- improving and interlinking existing tools and methods for Integrated Sustainability Assessment in novel ways and according to the specific needs of ISA-users;
- developing new tools and methods for Integrated Sustainability Assessment that capture the multidomain, multi-level and multi-actor complexity of ISA;
The resulting improved tools portfolio and ISA Best Practice Guidelines will form the primary deliverables of the project. They will be suitable for use by the commission and other actors in the governance hierarchy in operational applications of ISA to a wide range on contexts. A comprehensive dissemination programme will ensure the optimal take-up of these deliverables across Europe with a special emphasis on the accession countries. The dissemination programme will be underpinned by the creation of an ISA help-desk and webbased portal to disseminate the ISA Operational Guidelines and improved tools portfolio, and to provide a contact service for ISA practitioners and stakeholders. The development of these primary deliverables will be made possible by: producing a systemic inventory of current tools and methods for ISA, including the development of procedures for benchmarking; and by anchoring sustainability assessment within a rigorous scientific and theoretical context through the development of a conceptual framework for ISA. The Guidelines and improved tools portfolio will be evaluated and improved through application to a set of European case studies selected in order to deliver case-specific sustainability assessments useful to policy makers and other stakeholders. Full emphasis will be placed on engaging users and stakeholders throughout the development and application of all ISA-tools and methods in order to ensure a true co-production of knowledge, build competences/capacities and secure take-up in the EU-policy process. MATISSE aims to contribute to the longer-term development of ISA as a generic, strategic, multipurpose approach to the integrated analysis and assessment of sustainability strategies and policies.
Project coordinator
Dutch Research Institute for Transitions-Erasmus University Rotterdam, Drift/ EUR (Netherlands)
Participants
- Tyndall Centre & CSERGE, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UEA (United Kingdom)
- Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, RIVM (Netherlands)
- Institute of Communication & Computer Systems, ICCS (Greece)
- Stockholm Environment Institute, SEI (Sweden)
- Centre d'Observation Economique (COE) of Chambre de Commerce et d'Industrie de Paris, CRGA/ ERASME (France)
- Wuppertal Institute for Climate Environment and Energy, WI (Germany)
- University of Durham, DUR (United Kingdom)
- Centre for Environmental Studies (MICLU) Lund University, LUND (Sweden)
- IFF-Social Ecology Vienna, IFF (Austria)
- Institute of Environmental Science and Technology, A. University of Barcelona, UAB (Spain)
- Sustainable Europe Research Institute, SERI (Austria)
- Cambridge Econometrics, Cambridge, C-ECON (United Kingdom)
- Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, PIK Potsdam
- Regional Environmental Center for CEE, REC (Hungary)
- Charles University Environmental Center, CUEC (Czech Republic)
- Fraunhofer Institute Systems and Innovation Research, FhG/ISI (Germany)
- Department of Forest Sciences, Agricultural University of Norway, AUN (Norway)
- Centre de Cooperation Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Developpement, CIRAD (France)
- International Centre for Integrative Studies, Maastricht University, ICIS (Netherlands)
- University of Sussex Science and Technology Policy Research (SPRU), UoS (United Kingdom)
For further information, please visit: www.matisse-project.net
