Five years ago the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development with its 17 interlinked goals was adopted by the 193 UN member states. This marked a significant breakthrough for the entire international community. The Agenda 2030 aims at nothing less than improving the perspectives of all people.

When entering the Conrad Observatory you suddenly feel like in the scenery of a James Bond movie: two kilometers of shafts and tunnels deep in a mountain 50 kilometers south-west of Vienna and flashing lights of bizarre instruments.

A wide choice of different paths to Vocational Education and Training (VET) is a key factor of success and explains why Austria has one of the highest proportions of upper secondary students in VET among OECD countries. Up to 75% of any age group choose VET after finishing mandatory schooling.

For almost 50 years, the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIAS, https://iiasa.ac.at/) situated near Vienna, Austria, has brought together teams of international researchers to find solutions to global problems.