Director's Welcome
CAS was established as an independent foundation in 1989. Since its opening in 1992, the Centre has hosted around 115 research projects and more than 1500 fellows. Although many years have passed, CAS’ vision is still the same: our aim is to further excellent basic, curiosity-driven, research.
This vision has never been more important, yet it faces unprecedented challenges in a world where academic freedom is increasingly under attack. Trust in science is being drastically challenged – also in Norway, and protecting the independence of academic pursuit becomes not just an ideal, but a necessity.
This vision has never been more important, yet it faces unprecedented challenges in a world where academic freedom is increasingly under attack. Trust in science is being drastically challenged – and protecting the independence of academic pursuit becomes not just an ideal, but a necessity.
Much can be said for setting concrete and measurable goals for scientific development. However, this pressure to direct research toward immediate problems risks undermining the very foundation that makes many scientific breakthroughs possible.
Free and curiosity-driven research is an essential expression of mankind's quite unique ability to question and reflect on its own existence and surroundings. But this is not its only virtue. History has repeatedly shown that solutions to imminent crises and challenges can be found in results stemming from research that was built on curiosity rather than utility. New and unknown national and global challenges are bound to show up.
To be prepared to handle problems that we have not yet encountered, it is necessary to support and further a broad spectrum of research areas and activities at the level of basic science. And basic science not only delivers the means for solving problems, be they current or future. Basic science sometimes also discovers surprising new entities and opens our eyes to a host of new problems and challenges. Such entities might well exercise their influence on us even though their existence and effects would remain unknown to us without the aid of basic science.
Our focus must therefore be on fostering free, curiosity-driven research - not as a response to today's pressures, but as an investment in our collective future.
CAS is designed to accommodate and further excellent blue-sky research in all its breadth and variety. Our Centre offers funding and facilities which enable the scholars to carry out the research they are curious about – uninterrupted by other demands – in depth and together with their handpicked international team. And the driving force in all our projects is the quest for new knowledge, new ideas and not the least new questions.
To uphold tradition is however not the same as being inert. CAS is a vital and dynamic 34-year-old. Alongside our main programs we have recently launched several new initiatives:
We are pleased to welcome several short-term fellows to the Centre for the first time. These are former PIs from our CAS Research Grant and Young CAS Grant programmes. Their themes span across a vast domain of disciplines and areas, but we nevertheless believe that we will experience spontaneous cross fertilization across the projects.
We have partnered with the Young Academy of Norway and the Young Researchers Awards, to launch a new category for students aged 13-20: the CAS Research Prize, designed to spark interest in basic curiosity driven research and its intrinsic value. The first prize was awarded in April to a talented young mathematician, and we look forward to many creative projects ahead.
We are particularly proud to launch a new funding scheme in collaboration with the Gudmund Hernes Research Foundation: The Hernes-CAS Mobility Grant. This program offers a unique opportunity for a fully funded five-month residency at either the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study (SCAS) or the Paris Institute for Advanced Study (Paris IAS). This major addition to our portfolio deepens our international partnerships and strengthens our support to excellent, curiosity-driven research across borders.
Professor Camilla Serck-Hanssen