The International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS) is a global research institute and knowledge exchange platform, based in Leiden, the Netherlands. The Institute initiates and promotes interdisciplinary and trans-sectoral programmes that engage partners in Asia as well as institutes elsewhere in the world. So doing, the Institute aims to promote a more integrated understanding of present-day Asian realities as well as to pioneer new approaches to Asian Studies in a changing global context, and, more specifically, to contribute to new humanistically-informed and policy-relevant knowledge about Asia.
The International Institute for Asian Studies was, and still is, hosted by Leiden University, which provides office space as well as administrative and IT services. From 1997 to 2012, IIAS also had a branch office in Amsterdam, facilitated by the University of Amsterdam.[2]
IIAS receives its core funding from the Ministry of Education. The Institute additionally generates income from external sources, via grants, subsidies, and the joint execution of programmes.
While upholding its original mission, the Institute has over the years adapted and expanded its programmatic agenda in response to the demands of a changing global context.
Activities
Activities include multi-year research programmes and the building of academic networks, the organisation of international conferences and roundtables, a fellowship and a publication programme, PhD in-situ masterclasses, and the publication of a free periodical on Asian Studies (titled, The Newsletter).
The following current programmes and networks are among the Institute's main initiatives:
^Advisory Committee on the ‘Small Arts’ departments (Dutch: Kleine Letteren) chaired by J.F. Staal, set up in July 1989 by the Minister of Education and Science. Report: 'Krishna in the Delta' (October 1991).
