The commission’s work will bring together renowned scholars in the course of four international conferences on the basis of the transdisciplinary clusters of many worldwide distinguished experts which are already established within the Austrian Academy of Sciences. The conferences are meant to serve the exchange of ideas and discussions and subsequently, the results will be published. At the same time, the commission’s work is embedded and cross-linked in a wider supraregional context through major international projects and finally the aimed conference locations form important initiatives of the Austrian Academy of Sciences such as the “Bundesländerinitiative” (Federal States Initiative) and the cooperation with neighbouring countries in Eastern Europe.