Nantes IAS

Academic project
If scientific research is so essential to the future of our societies, it is first and foremost because of the comprehensive perspective it can offer on a globalised world that is too large to be grasped through compartmentalised bodies of knowledge. To obtain this broad perspective, it is necessary to combine a great variety of types of knowledge and points of view, taking account of the history and experience of each person. It is also necessary to dare to take new, unblazed paths.
This is why the Nantes IAS invites each year, on the basis of an extremely selective process, some 30 academics and artists who may come from all disciplinary fields and all regions of the world. It offers them the freedom to conduct the research of their choice with no constraints other than to share their explorations and to show curiosity about those of others.
The selection process aims at obtaining a balance between researchers from the “North” and from the “South” in each group, such a balance being essential in order to avoid Euro-centric approaches. It also gives priority to research relating to the dogmatic framework of societies, that is, to the institutional basis of mutual trust. This dogmatic dimension appears in particular in the study of languages, law, religion, philosophy and aesthetics; it also relates to management, monetary and accounting systems, urban studies, medicine, biology and the history and sociology of science.

Organisation and management
The Nantes Institute for Advanced Study has been a public-interest foundation since 2008; this status enables it to act autonomously. Its Board of Trustees is made up of 12 members, half of whom are qualified individuals. The Board is chaired by Johanna Rolland, mayor of the city of Nantes and president of the urban community Nantes Métropole. The director of the institute is Suleiman Mourad. Selection of fellows is the responsibility of an interdisciplinary, international Scientific Advisory Board chaired by the historian of science Shigehisa Kuriyama (Harvard University). Academic management of the institute handled by a college of associate members, which strengthens the institute’s ties to certain continents and to certain fields of study.

Reception of fellows
The Nantes IAS offers its fellows a splendid environment on the banks of the Loire, just next to the historic city centre. It has a building of 6,000 m2 built in 2008 to bring the institute’s offices, meeting facilities (lecture hall, club, workrooms, etc.) and housing all under one roof. The institute has a library and a research assistance department (information technology, document searches, logistical assistance). The fellows meet each week for an internal seminar and three meals. A film club and lecture series are also offered, and participants have the possibility of expressing themselves either in English or in French, thanks to dedicated language assistance.
Fellowships run from October to June, although those with children to enrol in school or who intend to take intensive French courses may arrive as early as late August. The institute can host about 25 fellows per year, for the equivalent of 200 researcher-months.