In March AIAS Director Morten Kyndrup chaired the UBIAS biennial Directors' Conference, 'UBIAS in a New World - UBIAS in the New World' hosted at the IEA-USP – Instituto de Estudos Avançados da Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil. For the period of 2016-2018, AIAS Director Morten Kyndrup has been chair/coordinator of UBIAS, a global network for University-Based Institutes of Advanced Study. Morten Kyndrup had announced that he would step down after this term, and in his place the UBIAS network members at the São Paulo meeting elected Professor Guilherme Ary Plonski, IEA-USP, as new coordinator of UBIAS network for the next term, from 2018-2020.

This week, Kyndrup and his AIAS team will formally transfer the UBIAS tasks to the new UBIAS chair Professor Plonski and his IAS-team at the University of São Paulo, Brazil. In the future, AIAS will remain an active member of the UBIAS network as Morten Kyndrup remain an elected member of the UBIAS Steering Committee, from 2018-2020.

Consolidation and transparency

During AIAS’s two-year term as coordinating institute, one of the main tasks has been to consolidate the network further with the formation of the ‘UBIAS Statutes’ – the rules and regulations governing the network – these were approved at the São Paulo meeting. AIAS has also succeeded in making the ‘UBIAS criteria’ for obtaining membership more transparent and easily accessible for ‘newcomers’, the potential, new members. Another focus has been to vitalize the collaboration between the so-called ‘Triumvirate’, the three members of the coordination (one chair and two deputy chairs), by initiating and hosting regular virtual meetings and to advance the communication between the coordinators and the members.

Extending the network, extending the discussion

During the Meeting in São Paulo, UBIAS accepted applications from five new members so that the network is now comprising a total of 44 institutes of advanced study from all over the world. The UBIAS meetings, that are held every two years, also serve as a discussion forum and platform for exchanging ideas and “best practices” and for connecting researchers, who are based at Institutes of Advanced Study, across continents, across disciplines and across gender. This connection is realized e.g. through the Intercontinental Academia (ICA) where two IASes from different continents work together on a specific theme and invite fellows from other regions to collaborate, and by working with a common UBIAS Topic of the Year – this year in 2018 it is 'Aging - Life, Culture, Civilizations'.

Read Morten Kyndrup’s Opening Speech at the Directors' Conference, ‘UBIAS in the New World – UBIAS in a New World’.
Read more about the global UBIAS network

Contact

Morten Kyndrup, AIAS Executive director and Professor
kyndrup@aias.au.dk

Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies, AIAS
Høegh-Guldbergs Gade 6B 
DK-8000 Aarhus C
Denmark