Constructive Advanced Thinking Program

Constructive Advanced Thinking

Aims

The Constructive Advanced Thinking (CAT) initiative aims to foster networks of excellent early career researchers committed to developing new ideas in order to understand and tackle current or emerging societal challenges. CAT was incubated within NetIAS in 2019 and is supported by 12 European Institutes for Advanced (IAS) Study. The programme supports short stays and research visits of international and interdisciplinary teams of three to five early career researchers, possibly including a stakeholder and led by the Principle Investigator, at participating IAS in order to advance constructive thinking, stimulate discussion and expertise and knowledge exchange.

How it works

CAT helps groups of 3 to 5 individuals, headed by an early-career researcher of any discipline, and possibly including PhD students, to work on their project for a duration up to 3 years. In order to enable them to engage in conversations and mature their ideas, the groups are given the opportunity to meet for short stays (i.e. maximum two weeks) in the participating institutes, and to be put in contact with the local fellows and research communities.

The proposals sent by the groups are examined by the participating institutes and reviewed by experts. In the spirit of a bottom-up and open call, the way the teams understand the call and design their proposal is a criterion of assessment, as is the societal relevance of the proposal, the quality of the team, its organization, the deliverables and the innovativeness of the approach to the issue at stake.

12 participating institutes from 9 countries

• Aarhus Institute for Advanced Studies
• CEU Institute for Advanced Study, Budapest
• Israel Institute for Advanced Studies, Jerusalem
• Madrid Institute for Advanced Study (will not take part in the 2020 call)
• Montpellier Advanced Knowledge Institute on Transitions, Montpellier
• Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study, Amsterdam
• Paris Institute for Advanced Study, Paris
• Scienza Nuova, Torino
• Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study, Uppsala
• Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, Berlin
• Zentrum für interdisziplinäre Forschung, Bielefeld
• Zukunftskolleg, Konstanz

CAT Programmes

Being a joint initiative of 12 European IAS, the administrative responsibilities for each CAT programme call rotate between the participating IAS. For more information on the annual calls and the groups supported, please contact the responsible IAS.