Hamburg Institute for Advanced Study
Specific profile
HIAS is a relatively young Institute for Advanced Study (founded in 2019). As an IAS, its mission is to attract highly qualified researchers and artists from all over the world, to stimulate the creation of fresh knowledge and unexpected results, and to connect researchers and institutions on a local, regional, and global level. HIAS has developed a specific profile, being a membership organization that seeks to connect its members – nine Hamburg universities and research institutions – with partners in science and art worldwide. HIAS thus serves as a platform to stimulate the internationalization of research in the metropolitan region of Hamburg. To build these strong global networks on a sustainable basis, HIAS is matching each fellow with a counterpart (“tandem partner”) from one of the Hamburg member institutions, in order to facilitate a close collaboration during their stay in Hamburg which can potentially continue after the fellowship and to bring mutual benefit on a long-term basis.
HIAS is open to scientists and scholars, as well as to artists and cultural professionals of all disciplines and career levels from the postdoc phase onwards. HIAS puts deliberately no special focus on specific disciplines or themes to keep the research process as open and free as possible. Thanks to the wide range of its member institutions, the institute provides ample opportunities for cross-discipline and intersectional collaborations. HIAS seeks to compose a group of fellows that, in respect to its members’ academic or artistic disciplines, gender, countries of origin and career stages, is as diverse and stimulating as possible. HIAS has a regular cooperation with Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study, in particular for early career researchers.
HIAS lays big emphasis on public engagement, by showcasing the fellows and their contributions to relevant social discourses and other pressing topics. This is achieved by various event formats, in cooperation with outstanding research groups of the member institutions or with Hamburg foundations. One example is the annual conference series “Hamburger Horizonte”.
Conditions and social life
HIAS fellows are appointed for research stays of three to ten months. HIAS offers conditions to its fellows that provide an optimal setting to pursue their research projects. Every fellow has a private office space at HIAS at their disposition and can make use of a personalized library service. HIAS enters with each fellow into an individual agreement that takes into account each researcher’s unique situation, following the idea that a fellow’s stay at HIAS should not lead to any financial loss nor gain. The fellows are housed in Universität Hamburg’s guesthouse. The institute emphatically welcomes accompanying life partners and children of fellows and offers an individualized service for them.
HIAS offers various weekly social and scholarly networking events: on Tuesdays, there is a homecooked fellow lunch, and on Thursdays, there is the weekly colloquium where the fellows present their research projects to their peers; this presentation and discussion is followed by a joint dinner. The institute creates an atmosphere of conviviality so that an open, trustful culture of discourse can deploy, and intense interdisciplinary exchange can arise.
The calls for fellowships
HIAS publishes a yearly call for individual fellowships. All the relevant information can be found here.
Premises
HIAS is located in downtown Hamburg, in the middle of the university quarter. With its mansions dating from the 19th and early 20th centuries, the area is one of the most beautiful and historic in Hamburg. Universität Hamburg’s guesthouse, the state library, numerous facilities of Universität Hamburg and the Aussenalster lake are within a short walking distance.
