2025 Annual Report

The Paris IAS is pleased to share its annual report for 2025 with you.

Foreword from the Director 

In recent years, everything has accelerated across the globe: crises no longer simply follow one another, they are piling up in an alarming chain reaction. Tensions are running high everywhere: over resources, the ecosystem, political systems, and so on. Conflicts are raging on our doorstep. Disruptive technologies (social media, AI) are driving massive societal changes and developing at a dizzying pace in a globalised world where the local is pitted against the global. Now more than ever, we need to reflect, to understand,and to draw on the humanities and social sciences to guide leaders, organisations and citizens. We must take a step back, gain a clear grasp of systemic problems so that we can address them rationally and on a sound, well-informed basis.

Science and research have always been essential resources for problem-solving and the development of societies. Yet this acceleration, these tensions and these disruptions spare neither scientific research nor those who carry it out – the very people on whom we rely to devise new solutions and approaches. Researchers find themselves caught up in a race that forces them to spend a considerable amount of time seeking funding, to be pulled in a thousand different directions during fragmented days and to cope with information overload, whilst being compelled to focus on their narrow field. This is the lot of us all, but it is particularly true for researchers whose work requires in-depth reflection on complex subjects.

In a world driven by urgency, Institutes for Advanced Study, thanks to the support of public institutions, maintain working environments where researchers find ideal conditions for reflection and the emergence of new ideas.

At the Paris IAS, we provide them with an uninterrupted block of time to explore, formalise, write and share their work, free from their usual commitments, so that they can produce exceptional research. This takes place in a free and supportive environment where they can explore issues openly and freely with researchers from other disciplines, as well as with decision-makers in critical and constructive discussions. A time to organise their thoughts, reconstruct their arguments, and return to their universities with renewed knowledge. This uninterrupted time has become a luxury, it is essential for in-depth research work.

The Paris IAS stands out amongst all other institutes for the number and variety of its academic members: 14 scientific institutionsin 2025 (25 prestigious institutions in 2026 with  the addition of PSL, representing more than 64 000 researchers and 330 000 students). This exceptional richness allows guest experts to benefit from such fascinating discussions, enables all our member institutions to network with leading international specialists, and helps to grow and enhance the profile of the Parisian research ecosystem.

Despite its size, the Paris IAS remains, thanks to its members, an active bridge between the very best in higher education and research in the Île-de-France region and the rest of the world. Its mission is to advance science for a better world. The task is huge, but so is the desire to succeed. The team, working alongside the members, tackles this with enthusiasm and by fostering collective intelligence. It is in Paris that everything happens, with ideas spreading to the far corners of the globe