GLOBAL IAS

Welcome to the Global Institute for Advanced Study

The Global Institute for Advanced Study (GIAS) is a joint initiative of the Institute for Advanced Study at the Central European University (IAS CEU) and the Open Society University Network (OSUN).

GIAS is dedicated to support early-career scholars in their quest of academic excellence, building bridges between the accomplishments of scientific research, the challenges pressing communities across the globe, and the educational needs of younger generations. The Institute’s ambition is to provide a nurturing environment and a launching pad for the international academic careers of talented and committed young scholars and help them develop a strong voice and a critical presence in the global scholarly debate. The Institute opens its doors in the Fall of 2022 to the first cohort of Fellows.

GIAS is rooted in the core values of its founding institutions. Our objective is to contribute to the free and independent pursuit of scholarly research in the context of an international and interdisciplinary intellectual community, while embedding this community in a long-lasting network with deep partnerships among diverse institutions committed to addressing global challenges collaboratively. Through its fellowships, GIAS contributes to fostering critical thinking, open intellectual inquiry, and rigorous research to support and promote open societies across the globe. 

As an independent institute, GIAS is dedicated to support and foster excellent research and thus contribute to OSUN’s mission. GIAS sets out to federate researchers worldwide to address global challenges and expand the creation of knowledge for open societies. It aims to do so in a manner that integrates scholars from various geographies and academic traditions working as peers. GIAS provides support for long-term collaborative research in a form of network fellowships and research grants, which will allow outstanding young scholars to embark on a major research project early on in their careers, to get integrated into an international structure of research-intensive institutions, secure sufficient time and resources to concentrate on substantial scholarly contribution over a sufficiently long period of time, and contribute to capacity building in research in selected OSUN member institutions.

Typically, GIAS Fellows are well equipped with advanced theoretical and methodological tools, and conversant within the conventions of international scholarship, but possess unique and well-practiced transnational perspectives and research approaches nuanced through their firsthand and extended engagement in a range of places and cultures of both the Global North and South and in a truly global group of peers. Infused by the OSUN culture, they will link their research with the agendas of civic engagement and applied work, joining the example of leading scholars in the OSUN network, which will make their time with GIAS a truly formative experience.   

GIAS offers fellowships that allow extended access to GIAS resources, time for field research, support for writing and public engagement.

As at other Institutes for Advanced Study around the globe, GIAS offers at the same time the necessary space and time for concentrated individual research and work, while the scholarship allows fellows to thrive in the stimulating intellectual context and in conversation with other scholars in residence at the Institute. Fellows will actively contribute to the network activities supported by GIAS and become prominent members of the emerging global community of OSUN scholars, while the program facilitates greater permeability and mobility between different academic cultures and contexts.