German Institutes for Advanced Study strive for visibility and adopt position paper in Delmenhorst

Following earlier meetings in Freiburg and Hamburg, the network's member institutions came together in Delmenhorst to exchange views on the challenges of science funding in a globalized science system in transition. The focus was on the shared interest in making the contribution of German IAS to the local science landscape and its needs more visible. The HWK, also an Institute for Advanced Study, hosted the event.

Closer cooperation, greater visibility

The German Institutes for Advanced Study support outstanding scientists (fellows) from around the world by, among other things, awarding fellowships for research stays in Germany. "There are currently 24 IAS in Germany, which host a total of about 450 fellows annually, almost 60% of them international. They thus make an important contribution to the internationality and diversity of the German research landscape," say the network's organizers. Although they measurably strengthen the research potential of many universities, their work is still too rarely perceived accordingly.

The network therefore wants to do more to promote the achievements of IASs in a competitive research landscape: "Due to their usually manageable size and their ability to align funding instruments quickly and flexibly with emerging research fields (e.g., the Corona pandemic or the Ukraine war), they contribute significantly to an agile and innovative scientific enterprise," the organizers say.

The number of IAS in Germany has increased to 24 institutes over the past 20 years. While many IAS traditionally focus on the humanities, cultural studies and social sciences, others focus on the natural and engineering sciences or provide funding across disciplines. They maintain different funding profiles from basic research to applications. What they all have in common is a focus on interdisciplinarity, internationalization, innovation in research projects, and the creation of space for unconventional thinking.

Key document adopted

To raise awareness of the potential of IAS, their contribution to the innovativeness and future viability of the German scientific landscape, and their needs, the network has adopted a position paper. 

IAS have a unique variety of scientific funding opportunities, it says: "cutting-edge research, internationalization, researchers in early career stages, individual and group research, and recently, increasingly, interdisciplinarity." They combine this wide instrumental range with the ability to transcend disciplinary boundaries: "Through the exchange of visiting scientists (fellows) across disciplinary boundaries, as well as networking and collaboration between disciplines, they bring together the most diverse fields of science that are otherwise often unconnected in research." Above all, the intellectual freedom that IAS can give excellent scientists is unique: "IAS open up spaces for experimentation that are otherwise all too rare in the science system, because innovation arises precisely in the interaction of outstanding researchers with time for scientific depth and reflection."

German IAS thus "act as innovation engines for science and as incubators for research ideas". In order to fulfill this mission, they need greater programmatic and financial autonomy, e.g. through legally defined scope and coordinated material funding, which the Council of Science and Humanities has already called for in a statement in 2021.

The network

The network of German Institutes for Advanced Study (IAS), which has been in existence since 2022, is an association of currently 20 German institutes. It is committed to improving the visibility of IAS in the public, political and academic spheres, to their programmatic and financial autonomy, and to intensifying their collaboration. The network partners meet twice a year at changing locations. 

The Max-Weber-Kolleg at the University of Erfurt is part of the network of German Institutes for Advanced Study (IAS). It is the only IAS in Thuringia and is committed to interdisciplinary and international research in the cultural and social sciences within the framework of a "Weberian research program" that currently focuses on the comparative cultural analysis of world relations.

Further Information

Position paper "Experimental spaces for globally diverse research and interdisciplinarity"
Group picture of the participating institutions at the Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg
Statement of the German Science Council on IAS in Germany