The Institute for Environmental Studies at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (IVM-VU) has the mission to contribute to sustainable development and to care for the environment through excellent scientific research and teaching. Being the oldest environmental research institute in the Netherlands (1971), IVM-VU is currently one of the world’s leading institutes in sustainability science. A unique feature of the Institute is its capacity to cut through the complexity of natural-societal systems with novel interdisciplinary approaches. The Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM) at VU Amsterdam is the project lead and coordinates the project activities with the other partners.