Cat (Constructive Advanced Thinking) Programme 2026

### (travel and accommodation costs)
# Reference number 2025/169.
5. Center for interdisciplinary Research, Germany
6. Centre for Advanced Study at The Norwegian Academy for Science and Letters, Norway
7. Centre for Advanced Study Sofia, Bulgaria
8. Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities, United Kingdom
9. Collegium de Lyon, France
10. Collegium Helveticum, Switzerland
11. Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies, Germany
12. Hamburg Institute for Advanced Study, Germany
13. Hanse-Wissenschafskolleg, Germany
14. Helsinky Collegium for Advanced Studies, Finland
15. Imèra - Institute for Advanced Study, France
16. Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen, Austria
17. Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, United Kingdom
18. CEU Institute for Advanced Study, Budapest
19. Institute of Advanced Studies of Bologna, Italy
20. Israel Institute for Advanced Studies, Jerusalem
21. Madrid Institute for Advanced Study, Madrid
22. Nantes Institute for Advanced Study, France
23. Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study, Amsterdam
24. New Europe College Institute for Advanced Study, Romania
25. Paris Institute for Advanced Study, Paris
26. Scienza Nuova, Torino
27. Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study, Uppsala
28. Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, Berlin
29. Zukunftskolleg, Konstanz
30. Montpellier Advanced Knowledge Institute on Transitions, Montpellier The collaboration between different institutes in different countries aims at giving these groups access to a great variety of high-level thinkers and researchers in order to go beyond the current frontiers of knowledge and to develop highly innovative ideas on how to address very complex societal issues.

**Responsibilities**:

- At the end of their project, in addition to the organization of one or more final meeting(s) presenting the results, the CAT teams will be expected to produce a final report in the form of a text, video, website or other media, that will be made public.
- In keeping with the policies of the participating institutes, the researchers retain the intellectual property rights to their work.

Your competencies
- Your project must address emergent societal issues.
- The Principal Investigator (team leader) must have a stable research position in a European (EU as well as UK and

) higher education and/or research institution for the entire duration of the project 37. S/he must have obtained a PhD between January 2016 and September 2025. 38. Doctoral researchers may also participate. However, no team member should have obtained her/his PhD before January 2016. 39. The elibility can be extended beyond 10 years after the PhD for any member of the group for certain properly documented circumstances such as maternity and paternity leaves, clinical training, long-term illness, national service, natural disaster or seeking asylum. 40. There is no specific diploma or age requirement for representatives of stakeholder organizations. 41. Each team should include participants from at least two different countries (current workplace, including non-European countries; any nationality). 42. The team of 3 to 5 persons (stakeholders included) must be fully constituted, with CVs of all members named in the proposal.
We offer
- CAT will provide teams of early-career researchers time and space for thought and discussion in the best research environments Europe has to offer.
- During a period of up to three years, teams will benefit from a series of short stays (i.e. between one and two weeks, two to three times a year, for a maximum of six stays) in participating institutes.
- CAT will cover travel and accommodation expenses for the team meetings/short work stays in the participating institutes. CAT will not fund salaries or or research related expenses.
- During their stay, CAT teams will benefit from the institutes’ amenities and conviviality for work and exchanges.
- Discussions at the institutes will provide a unique sounding board for innovative ideas and will give valuable feedback.

**. Applications should include**: (1) a 300-word abstract;
(2) a 3000-word max project proposal (references not included in the count) OR a video of 15 min max (in this case, please include the web link in the abstract), describing the team’s research question and how it plans to address it. The team’s motivation as well as the societal issues addressed and the interdisciplinary aspects of the project should be specified;
(3) a work plan for the whole project duration, including meetings (tentative dates and possibly preferred hosting IAS) and activities with an indicative calendar;
(4) a short description of the team
(5) CVs for each participant and an indication of where they will travel from to the meetings;
**(6) letters of support**: at least two from academic researchers; additional letters from extra-academic stakeholders outside academia are encouraged.
online