Lancaster University, Lancaster LA1 4YD, UK.
E-mail: ias@lancaster.ac.uk

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Mission Statement

Mission

The Institute for Advanced Studies is a dedicated research institute of the University of Lancaster. Its primary objective is to continue and sustain the process of consolidating Lancaster as a leading centre of excellence in the United Kingdom for interdisciplinary and postdisciplinary research, and to raise the international profile of the university in this regard. In this context it also undertakes other activities, which are listed below, that supplement or complement this primary objective.

Aims

1. To enhance Lancaster's substantial international research reputation for social and management scholarship and research, and act as a research catalyst and incubator for collaborative research projects and programmes that connect, widen, and deepen the expertise in the Social Sciences, Management, and Arts and Humanities at Lancaster.
2. To become an internationally-recognised centre of excellence, committed to imaginative research and scholarship conducted by teams of scholars recruited from around the world [including locally] on thematically-focused projects.
3. To build on Lancaster's acknowledged strengths by promoting more widely the case for inter- and post-disciplinary scholarship and research as a means of breaking the intellectual constraints of established disciplines and contribute to integrated thinking in addressing complex social problems; and, in so doing, to transform traditional disciplines and fields of study through the incorporation of new theories, methods, frameworks, and data and to develop knowledge relevant to emerging theoretical and practical issues in relation to the themes identified by the Academic Board in consultation with Institute members and stakeholders.
4. To develop talent and skills through open dialogue in and across different disciplines, research traditions, and objects of investigation and, through activities addressed to researchers and scholars at different stages in their career, to train them in inter- and post-disciplinary theory and methods and enable them to undertake research and scholarship in these areas.

Objectives

1. To support various inter- and post-disciplinary projects in the social sciences, management, and arts and humanities around a current theme and to offer a programme of conferences, visiting professorships and fellowships, workshops, and public lectures that may be related to that theme.
2. To organize, as its 'flagship' activity, either one annual research programme or two parallel or consecutive research programmes concerned with a specific inter- or post-disciplinary topic that involves active cooperation between visiting international and national scholars and the local research community under the direction of a senior Lancaster scholar. These themes will be selected through competition, and developed by workshops, conferences, and other means before specific outside funding for the workshop(s) in question is sought.
3. To secure general external resources to support a wider programme of international and national visitors to work within long-term research programmes and/or annual thematic research groups or, alternatively, on their own projects whilst still being integrated into the Institute's research environment. The University will offer visiting honorary appointments to Visiting Research Fellows (who undertake a visit of at least four weeks dedicated to research collaboration); and Associate Fellows (who will comprise scholars from outside Lancaster with whom the Institute wishes to have a continuing association). A third category of visitors will comprise Workshop Visitors, who will make visits of less than four weeks' duration. Contributions to travel and living expenses shall be determined by the Director. Remuneration, if any, for fellows and visitors will depend on the conditions of any external awards and on the availability of internal funds.
4. To develop, promote, and support collaborative research activity across institutions and disciplines related to the research catalyst and incubator activities of the Institute, especially where these are likely to generate grant applications and/or are linked to externally funded research activities already located within the larger Institute building. The Institute may provide modest 'seed money' for these activities to supplement internal funds available through the Faculties and the University's own research initiative funds. A unified report back mechanism will be operated to minimize paperwork whilst preserving accountability.
5. To facilitate and host occasional interdisciplinary conferences, workshops and seminars with participants from outside as well as within Lancaster University. Given the varying lead times for these different activities and their different demands on Institute resources and facilities, forward programming will be coordinated by the Academic Board.
6. To facilitate contact and collaboration between staff members and postgraduate students within and across the Faculty of Social Sciences, the Management School, and the Faculty of Arts and Humanities and in other institutions within and beyond the UK.
7. To provide a stimulating environment for the training of young scholars at the highest level in post-disciplinary research through the provision of intensive workshops and longer-term training and research opportunities. The role of international visitors is expected to prove especially valuable in here. This objective is particularly appropriate for research that involves cooperation between scholars in the social and management fields. In this context the Institute will also host post-doctoral fellows whose work is relevant to its aims and objectives.
8. To develop a range of high-quality research publications and to disseminate all of its research output to as wide an audience as possible, within the research community and beyond.

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