:: IEA - Paris
Institute for Advanced Studies – Paris
(Institut d’études avancées, IEA-Paris)
In April 2006, the French government signed the Pact for Research. In the fall, a call for national projects was made and thirteen foundations for scientific cooperation were officially created. Three of them were for the social and human sciences.
The State invested 200 million euros to support forty partner scientific institutions and made it possible to create thirteen Thematic Networks for Advanced Research (TNAR). They mainly focus on mathematics, computing, physics, chemistry, agronomics, and life sciences, economics (two), as well as the social and human sciences via the French Network of Institutes for Advanced Studies (FNIAS).
The FNIAS is led by a Board composed of heads of the four Institutes for Advanced Studies (IAS) and the CNRS, an ex officio member of all TNAR. It is presided by Jacques Commaille and its director is Olivier Bouin.
Operating out of Paris, Lyon, Aix en Provence and Nantes, the purpose of the Network’s IAS is to stimulate and reinforce pluridisciplinary research in the human and social sciences by focusing on international cooperation. The scientific projects of the four IAS embody all the diversity inherent in the human and social sciences. Their goals are to boost the appeal and visibility of French research, but also to raise interactivity between French and foreign researchers, to stimulate cooperation between scientific disciplines, and to promote public-private partnerships.
The Institute for Advanced Studies - Paris is led by the Fondation Maison des Sciences de l’Homme. It acts in conjunction with the Ecole des Hautes Etudes in Sciences Sociales (EHESS) and the Ecole Normale Supérieure (ENS). Major players in research, these three institutions have stimulated and supported the development of the “golden age” of French social and human sciences and have enriched the whole world with works by some of the 20th century’s greatest researchers. It was therefore only natural that the IAS - Paris was founded around these three institutions.
Maison Suger
IAS-Paris is governed by a Board of Directors that includes the heads of the three partner institutions, and their representatives. The IAS headquarters is located at Maison Suger.
Governance
Its Board of Directors is composed of representatives from the three institutions
- Michel Wieviorka, Administrator of the Fondation MSH
- Jean-Charles Darmon, Assistant Director of Social and Human Sciences at the ENS (Ecole Normale Supérieure) in Paris
- François Weil, President of EHESS (Ecole des hautes éudes en sciences sociales)
Its Scientific Steering Committee gathers
- Jean-Luc Racine, for Fondation MSH
- Frédéric Worms, for ENS Paris
- Michael Werner, for EHESS
Jean-Luc Lory is the general secretary.
Means and Resources
The 2008 budget for IAS-Paris is roughly one million Euros. The amount is provided by the three founding institutions and EDF R&D, the Institute’s first private partner. The French Network for Advanced Studies Institutes Foundation also provides an annual contribution. In addition, the Institute is included in the State’s plan for the Ile-de-France region for the 2006-2013 period.
Invited researchers are provided with office-living space at the Maison Suger and the ENS. Rooms for work, seminars, and video-conferencing are available at the Maison Suger. This was made possible thanks to the ENS and the EHESS. The ENS and FMSH libraries provide privileged access to the Institute’s researchers.
Key dates
- Creation of FNIAS (French Network of Institutes for Advanced Studies)
Agreement between the State and FNIAS
7 March 2007 law
First Board Meeting: 23 March 2007
- Creation of IAS-Paris
First Board of Directors meeting: 19 November 2007
First Scientific Committee Meeting: 19 Novembre 2007
First public-private partnership (with EDF)
- The first invitees for IAS research projects will be hosted during the first quarter of 2008.
