Paris Institute for Advanced Study
The Paris Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) is an academic centre where the international scholarly community meets together with the vast talents and resources of Parisian institutions and society. It combines high-level transdisciplinary scientific programs with curiosity-driven inquiries in the humanities and social sciences, in order to cross the boundaries of knowledge and increase the impact and societal relevance of research.
The institute is deeply embedded in the Greater-Paris community, co-constructing projects with local academic and non-academic partners and offering public events bringing the humanities, the social and life sciences together with the arts (fine arts, literature, theatre, music and dance, digital arts, etc.)
Research at the Institute is conducted by leading international senior scholars and promising junior researchers selected yearly for stays of a semester or a year. The fellows are given time to explore, space to concentrate, and opportunities of stimulating interactions with local and foreign experts from most disciplines. The inspiring, collegial, and convivial atmosphere provided by the Institute helps build lasting learning communities, the weekly research seminars stimulate transdisciplinary work and the serendipitous encounters foster innovation through conversations.
The Paris IAS premises are situated in one of the most beautiful historical buildings of the city, the Hôtel de Lauzun, built in 1656, now property of the City of Paris. This prestigious hôtel particulier, which has been the home to famous cultural figures such as Charles Baudelaire, is ideally located in the Île Saint Louis, close to Notre Dame de Paris. It provides the fellows and partners of the Institute with an unparalleled working environment.
The fellows are housed in the Résidence Victor Lyon with easy access to the Institute.
In addition to being a hub of transdisciplinary and intersectoral exchange for the intellectual, scientific, institutional and business communities of the greater Paris, the Paris IAS develops several research programs of its own, among which:
The “Blue-Sky” Humanities and Social Sciences Program
Believing that meaningful discoveries can emerge from the merest curiosity for yet uncharted intellectual territories, the Institute selects the majority of its fellows through non-thematic calls for applications, to engage in innovative, high risk fundamental research.
Fellows are selected exclusively for the excellence of their projects and careers, independently of gender, nationality or discipline. During their stay, they benefit from unfragmented time and an ideal environment to develop their intellectual project.
Brain, Culture and Society
Neuroanatomical and neurofunctional data from the life sciences, especially neuroscience, bring a major contribution to the study of behavior, mind, and consciousness. Likewise, the knowledge acquired by the humanities is essential for neuroscience to translate brain and body activation into knowledge on human thought and action.
This programme builds interdisciplinary bridges and fosters communication and intellectual debate among researchers in the human and natural sciences. It explores in a transdisciplinary manner new or understudied areas and phenomena crucial to understand the world we live in: mass violence and terrorism, decision-making, memory and trauma, education, learning and artificial intelligence, causes of pleasure and pain, etc.
The META program on the formats and impacts of intersectoral collaborations
To provide scientific knowledge more directly relevant to socio-economic actors (government, industry, NGOs or the general public), META develops new research formats of collaborative research combining practice and theory, as well as new formats of dissemination leveraging arts and humanities.
Building upon the know-how and intersectoral networks already in place, and developing them in collaboration with local universities and institutions, META feeds on concrete case studies defined jointly with extra-academic actors (e.g. the mayor of Paris, industry). It includes themes such as the resilience of cities, or the impacts of artificial intelligence.
And more…
New programs and initiatives are continuously being developed: as its name suggests, the Paris Institute for Advanced Study is happy to foster and support innovative and bold initiatives, starting with interesting conversations and leading to new theories or major projects with societal impact.
