Welcome to the Institute of Advanced Studies

Birmingham is already among the globe’s leading universities and we are determined to secure and enhance this position in the years ahead. We will achieve this through the quality of our research, the success of our students and the innovation that springs from our partnerships.

One of the five key strategic goals indentified in Making Important Things Happen - Strategic Framework 2015-2020 is to enhance our research power by making world-class academic appointments while developing the potential of our existing staff, investing in major new research initiatives building on our quality and disciplinary range.

The IAS grew from an idea that in order to fully explore our own intellectual capital there was a need for more effective collaboration across the institution. To achieve this requires a shared theme, resources and effective relationships. As a result, the university is making significant resources available for sustained interdisciplinary research. Such research is important because many of our major human societal concerns require interdisciplinary inputs, and the major funding agencies are increasingly putting forward thematic areas which require such inputs to be successful.