“Science has increasingly moved away from compartmentalised thinking and is looking beyond boundaries more often”
Ten years ago, the University of Amsterdam (UvA) became the first university in the Netherlands to establish an Institute for Advanced Study (IAS). There, leading researchers – free from the constraints of university structures – tackle fundamental questions and societal issues. What are the benefits of such an institute?
The wooden steps of the two canal-side buildings on Oude Turfmarkt, where the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) is based, are deeply worn. They bear the marks of nearly four hundred years of history – having been built in 1642 on the orders of Pieter Janszoon Sweelinck, son of the composer Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck – and are thus almost as old as the UvA itself.
With some pride, outgoing IAS director Huub Dijstelbloem gives a tour of the building, which – apart from a group of young researchers on the second floor behind a flipchart, referred to by Dijstelbloem as the “emergence group”Emergence is one of the IAS’s research strands and describes phenomena that appear “spontaneously” and cannot be reduced to the sum of their parts. An example is consciousness: this arises from interactions between neurons in the brain but cannot be traced back to a single individual interaction. – lies quiet on a Thursday morning in April. Having its own building is “crucial” for an institute like the IAS, says Dijstelbloem. “A place where sparks can fly. And where people feel they’ve momentarily escaped their daily worries.”
As old as the building itself, so young is the history of the IAS at the UvA. Since 2016, the UvA has been the only Dutch university to have its own IAS, which acts as a kind of think tank across faculty boundaries, reflecting on fundamental questions in science. Although the IAS operates between the faculties rather than above them, as Dijstelbloem emphasises right at the start of the interview.
What is the IAS in a single sentence?
“The IAS embodies the essence of science: sitting together to think, racking your brains and devising questions that transcend disciplinary boundaries.”
The IAS has been in existence for ten years. How sustainable is such a research institute in an era that increasingly revolves around the impact of research results?
“Very sustainable, I think. After all, the world is facing complex problems, such as climate change, migration and geopolitical conflicts, which require collaboration across different disciplines. But try getting such collaboration off the ground at a large university like the UvA, with seven faculties and thousands of staff. Here at IAS we’ve managed to do just that. Quite a few Research Priority Areas (interdisciplinary research lines) have emerged here. And that with relatively straightforward funding: the IAS does not employ researchers but receives funding from the Executive Board solely for permanent staff and the building. The direct impact of that research must ultimately be felt across the UvA, but the conditions for such collaborations are created here.”
The IAS also offers an insight into how the academic system itself is developing. What changes have you observed over the past ten years?
“Technological developments and the rise of AI have made far more data available. All disciplines are feeling the effects of this. In addition, critical reflection within science on the ‘big tech’ side of AI, the concentration of power, the plundering of raw materials and energy consumption has also developed enormously.”
“Science has also increasingly moved away from compartmentalising problems and is looking beyond boundaries more and more often. As a result, there has been a growing awareness of hybrid problems: the boundaries between nature and culture, and political and social issues have become increasingly blurred. Climate change is no longer just a technical problem, but one that affects all scientific disciplines and defines our current era: everything you see in the news is connected to it. I call this changing attitude progress in science. Because if you understand better how deeply problems are intertwined, you can hopefully also devise better solutions for them.”
An IAS is an academic research institute where outstanding scientists from various disciplines come together to reflect on societal issues free from academic constraints. The most famous example is the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton – known for scientists such as Albert Einstein and UvA physicist Robbert Dijkgraaf, who was a researcher there for many years and later became its director – which was founded in 1930 and forms the basis for all subsequent IASs.
Unlike the IAS in Princeton and the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study (NIAS), the IAS at the UvA is a university-based IAS. This means that the research institute links the issues to the UvA’s research lines. Furthermore, the institute does not employ any scientists itself but relies on researchers who work there on a voluntary basis. There are around fifty university-based IASs worldwide.
The structure of academia is less prone to change; universities are still conservative institutions.
‘That’s right. Certainly for young researchers. If you’re just starting out as a postdoc and trying to take the next step in academia, you’re still expected to ensure your first publications fit meticulously within your field and are published in journals that your colleagues read. After that, you might be able to loosen the reins a little, but by then you’ve already been at it for quite some time. For some researchers, that works fine. Others see it as a prison. We’re working on that within the Recognition & Appreciation programme, that researchers are assessed not only on research output but also on other qualities such as teaching and leadership. The IAS can also play a role in this by offering young researchers, who are coming up against the limits of the academic system, a place to seek support from one another and learn from each other in order to transcend those limits.”
You are stepping down as director of the IAS in September. Are you leaving with peace of mind, and is it ready for the next ten years?
“Certainly, I’m going to miss it. It’s a special place: there are few institutes that operate so bottom up across all faculties, and that gives you a great insight into what’s happening at the university. I could happily have carried on doing this for the rest of my life, but it’s also a fine principle that someone else takes up the baton. And as for the future: the IAS will certainly last another ten years; once IASs have been established, they often have a very long life.”
From 18 to 21 May, the IAS is celebrating its tenth anniversary with the IAS Festival. A week full of lectures, workshops and discussions. To mark the 10th anniversary, a book has been written about the IAS, The Edge of Knowing.
Huub Dijstelbloem and Sanne Bloemink, The Edge of Knowing. Curiosity, complexity and collaboration. (WBOOKS, 2026). The book will be available online for free from 18 May.
