Sustainable development has become an overall policy objective in the European Union. The objective of MATISSE is therefore to achieve a step-wise advance in the science and application of Integrated Sustainability Assessment (ISA) of EU policies.
MATISSE will improve and interlink existing tools and methods for ISA with the focus on quantitative tools. In addition, new methods and tools will be developed that capture the multi-domain, multi-level and multi-actor complexity of ISA. A major focus will be on developing ISA-modelling tools in relation to ISA-participatory methods. In four case studies the improved and new ISA tools will be applied and tested. The case studies are designed to cover the broad spectrum of domains and contexts of ISA in the EU. The themes are: i) agriculture, forestry and land-use, ii) resource use, waste and dematerialisation, iii) water, and, iv) sustainable environmental technology development.
The Wuppertal Institute together with the Faculty for Interdisciplinary Studies (IFF Vienna) is coordinating the case study on resource use, waste and dematerialisation.
Another focus will be on the involvement and engagement of stakeholders and policy makers, which will be secured throughout the project.
The resulting improved tools portfolio will be made suitable for use by the European Commission and other actors in the governance hierarchy that seek to apply ISA in a wide range of contexts.
The consortium of the project consists of 21 European research institutions, including the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at the University of East Anglia and in Germany the Potsdam Institute for climate impact research (PIK) and the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research (ISI). The consortium is led by Prof. Jan Rotmans at the Dutch Research Institute for Transitions (DRIFT), University of Rotterdam.
Further information on the individual project partners can be found on the website of the project.