About the program
The Israel Institute for Advanced Studies (IIAS) is a center for intellectual inquiry that supports collaborative research groups (RGs). The essence of the RGs is the curiosity-driven research in all academic fields covering mathematics, natural sciences, social sciences and the humanities. RGs are selected to expand the boundaries of current knowledge by introducing new methodologies, promoting original thinking and exploring new ideas.
Each Collaborative Research Groups (RGs) hosts a group of scholars from Israel and abroad who convene in residency at the IIAS in Jerusalem. The IIAS provides a nurturing, stimulating academic environment for reaching academic excellence in all research disciplines.
The goal of the RG selection is to bring together a diverse group of scholars that are engage is a research question that is expected to benefit from an integrative thinking and a rich dialogue among scholars. RGs are expected to expand individual fellows’ research. Interdisciplinarity and cross-fertilization with genuine complementarity of scholarships are considered.
The IIAS is open to RG applications from scholars in all countries and all disciplines. The expectation is that the RG period of residence will result in creative and original research that will be shared with the international research communities.
Research Group Application Information 2019-2020
There are two stages for submission: a pre-proposal and a proposal submission online. The process of application is competitive (in recent years the acceptance rate ranged from 15-25%). The IIAS considers academic excellence to be the dominant criterion. Topics that were presented in recent years are less likely to be selected.
Proposal Submission: September 15 – December 1, 2017
At this step, the initiator will submit a request to open a user name and password for the proposal submission system.
Submission Deadline: November 23, 2017 (midnight)
The request will be reviewed by the IIAS and the initiator will receive an e-mail from the IIAS with approval to move to a full proposal submission.
Submission Deadline: December 1, 2017 (midnight)
Evaluation Process
The Academic Committees and the IIAS Board of Directors oversee the proposals to endure the diversity and balance of topics and disciplines for the academic year.
Proposals are evaluated by the Institute's Academic Committees, appointed by the Rector of The Hebrew University, the President of The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, and the Yad Hanadiv Foundation.
The IIAS has two Academic Committees: (i) for evaluating proposals in the Natural Sciences and (ii) for evaluating proposals in the Social Sciences and Humanities. Its members are listed on our website.
Short List
All proposals are reviewed and evaluated by the IIAS Academic Committees who will select a number of proposals to be includedon a short list. Notification of rejection will be sent to all other proposal initiators. Proposals that have been selected for the short list will be evaluated by external referees. The majority of the external referees are from abroad. Each proposal will be evaluated by at least 3 external referees in addition to the assessment of the Academic Committee members.
Upon receiving approval of the proposal in the short list the proposal initiator is required to submit an updated and confirmed listing of all group participants with their explicit consent, and to complete missing information (e.g. CVs, change in academic status, key visiting scholars). In addition, the initiators should address specific comments and requests raised during the evaluation process (when appropriate).
The updated proposal is then reviewed by the Academic Committees and by a number of external referees. In recent years, the acceptance rate for proposals that were on the short list was 40-50%.
Submission of a detailed proposal does not constitute a commitment on the part of the IIAS or the nominees until a proposal receives final approval. Nominees must be informed that their appointment is subject to the approval of the IIAS Academic Committees.
A letter of acceptance or rejection will be sent by March 30, 2017.
Post-acceptance steps
The IIAS asks the initiator of an accepted Research Group to schedule a meeting with the IIAS Director and Administrative Director during April 2018. The agreement between the initiator and the IIAS will be signed in order to clarify the commitment of the group initiator. Additional practical and budget information will be shared with the RG initiators.
Nominee consent is considered a "declaration of intent." Once a group has been created and fellows and visitors have been approved, any changes to the list of participants or the status of a participant must be determined in consultation with the IIAS Director and the Academic Committees. Any change in the approved list of Research Group members should be justified in writing by the group initiator and approved by the IIAS Director and representatives of the Academic Committees.
For more information click "Further official information" below.
This opportunity has expired. It was originally published here:
http://www.as.huji.ac.il/rgopencall