Thematic programmes
The Paris IAS aims to attract the most promising and distinguished researchers in the fields of the human and social sciences. Most of the researchers who come to the IAS every year, carry out the project of their choice in a so-called “blue-sky program”, i.e., a non-thematic, bottom-up research program. The Institute’s also develops thematic programs.
“Brain, culture and society” program
The interface between Neuroscience and Humanities and Social sciences
This thematic program on neuroscience aims to develop a new scientific approach, founded on a combination of different theories and methods, those of cognitive neuroscience and those of humanities and social sciences. The goal is to create a permanent space for interdisciplinary dialogue, and to initiate workshops and symposia that lead to original collaborations around new projects.
The IAS is by definition a meeting place of different research cultures that interact during regular seminars, but also informally in the daily life of the Institute. By hosting in residence (from a few weeks to a full academic year) researchers in neuroscience in a program mainly involving HSS specialists, the Institute makes exchange possible and allows each participant to discover the work and ways of thinking of others.
The META Program
A new reflection on the ends and impact of HSS research
To pursue and deepen its mission to generate groundbreaking new knowledge and bring about paradigm shifts, the Paris IAS is developing a specific program adopting a meta-analytical and epistemological viewpoint on the conditions necessary for research in the Social and human sciences to have a real impact on society. One important goal is to provide scientific knowledge more directly relevant to socio-economic actors (government, industry, NGOs or the general public). It also aims to devise innovative ways of conducting research and disseminating its results, in particular in collaboration with the humanities and the arts.
Work on the new transdisciplinary and intersectoral forms of knowledge production will be based on concrete case studies defined jointly with extra-academic actors. The analysis of the case studies will bring results that will be useful for the actors concerned, but also generate new knowledge for the scientific world and for students. The themes under scrutiny will belong to the general category of societal challenges.
In order to gather the necessary expertise in Paris and to ensure responsiveness, the program will be built on short term, targeted invitations of the best international specialists, who will work on programs co-defined with administrations and socio-economic actors, as well as with the more traditional scientific partners of the Institute (universities, research centers, etc.).
The first project developed in the META program is the Chair on Resilience and Territorial innovation, in collaboration with the Délégation Générale à la Transition Écologique et à la Résilience of the City of Paris and the Engineering school of the City Paris. Its goal is to formalize and analyze the management and evaluation of territorial resilience policies, in order to capitalize on good practices and produce guidelines for action.
Second project developed by the IAS in the framework of the META programme: support for the City of Paris in welcoming CIFRE doctoral students into its departments. Experimented since 2009, the CIFRE (Conventions Industrielles de Formation par la Recherche) scheme is a tool for the City of Paris to innovate and modernize its administration: young researchers, whose thesis subjects focus on the city's key issues, provide the city with a new force for reflection, analysis and advice on the development of its public policies. Assistance in the selection process of doctoral students, animation of workshops on issues of interest to these young researchers, exchanges of good practices, are all actions carried out by the IAS to support this format of intersectoral collaboration.
Latest META project to date: WPRN - World Pandemic Research Network. Initiated by the IEA in Paris and supported by the NETIAS, UBIAS, EASSH, UAI and IPSP networks, WPRN, a collaborative platform covering all continents, aims to list research projects and resources on the societal and human impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic. With the support of its international scientific council, WPRN thus wishes to stimulate the emergence of federating projects and their cross-fertilization, in a logic of transversality and open science, and thus demonstrate the importance of social sciences to understand the current pandemic and its consequences.
European Institute for Chinese Studies (EURICS)
The Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation has entrusted the French Network of Institutes for Advanced Studies (RFIEA) with the incubation of the European Institute for Chinese Studies (EURICS). Its objective is to support international research on China and the analysis of its past, present and future dynamics in various fields, in a multidisciplinary spirit.
Since 2020, the Paris IAS has provided EURICS with its expertise in hosting international researchers and experimenting with transdisciplinary collaboration formats. Thus, the Paris IAS promotes collaboration and exchanges between its research fellows and the researchers selected by EURICS, and involves the latter in its scientific and cultural activities.
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