Strong focus on public discourse

A special feature of HIAS, in addition to its close ties with local academic institutions, is its strong focus on the Hamburg public: for example, the Hamburg Körber Foundation, together with HIAS, organizes “Hamburger Horizonte”, an annual series of conferences for the exchange between academia and society.

“Fellows at HIAS do not live in the seclusion of a monastery. The debates among each other, the close connection to the academic community, but also the dialogue with the citizens of Hamburg are desired and one of our strengths,” says Frank Fehrenbach, founding Chair of the Executive Committee and professor at the Department of Art History at Universität Hamburg.

In order to support and personalize this networking with scholars and researchers based in Hamburg, each HIAS fellow is assigned a collaboration partner from one of the nine HIAS member institutions. These partners ensure that the fellows are integrated into the respective Hamburg specialist communities and that both the fellows and their Hamburg collaboration partners receive new impulses for their research.

Each fellow commands a budget to plan and hold public events during their stay in Hamburg. The institute itself organizes lectures and symposia on topics and findings discussed at HIAS.

Fellows are invited on the recommendation of a selection committee based on their academic excellence, their innovative strength, and the interdisciplinary nature of the research project they will be working on at HIAS. Fellows may apply for a fellowship themselves or be nominated by researchers from the Hamburg member institutions. The fellowships are financed by the Federal Government and the State of Hamburg as part of Universität Hamburg’s Excellence Strategy, as well as by the Joachim Herz Foundation and the ZEIT STIFTUNG BUCERIUS. The Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Hamburg provides fellowships for early career researchers.