Professor David Deacon, Founding Director of the Institute of Advanced Studies (2016-2018)

The creation of Loughborough’s Institute of Advanced Studies can be traced back to Robert Allison’s appointment as Vice Chancellor in 2012.  One of Bob’s initial ideas was that the University create a ‘research hotel’, where eminent international scholars would stay for a while to pursue their research and develop collaborations with Loughborough colleagues, whilst enjoying the bucolic ambience of our campus. This idea was taken forward by Mark Freeman of the School of Business and Economics, whose proposal for the creation of an Institute for Advanced Studies was integrated into the University’s research strategy in 2016. Mark then departed to pastures new and I was invited to take over.

I was excited by this new role but a little daunted. I understood the broader rationale for this new institute: encouraging international scholarly collaboration to provide multiple and mutual benefits for all involved. I was less clear about how this would be realised within the University and within the budget envelope provided (which wasn’t ungenerous). Thankfully, help was soon at hand, with the appointment of Dr Helen Tighe as a Research Development Manager. I cannot overstate the importance of Helen’s contribution to developing the Institute, and the plans that emerged were entirely co-produced. I would also like to acknowledge Kathryn North’s invaluable contribution as Head of Research Development.

Helen and I agreed that a good way forward would be to visit as many existing Institutes of Advanced Studies as we could, to see how they operated and then emulate their best practices. The receptiveness of these Institutes to our approaches was heartwarming and in 2017 we toured the UK and mainland Europe talking to IAS directors, discussing their strategies, and viewing their premises. It soon emerged that the label ‘Institute of Advanced Studies’ covered a multitude of arrangements. On one end of the continuum, you had bespoke institutes with impressive premises and eight figure plus annual budgets. On the other, you had institutes that were largely desk-based, where the label was as much used to rebadge existing research activities as it was to leverage additional resources for external visitors and research collaborations.

Two further conclusions emerged from these investigations. First, an Institute needs to have a physical location on campus to have credible status: there has to be a ‘there, there’. This requirement was met by the allocation of the building  that had previously been used to host University dining events and fallen into disrepair. Second, Institutes tend to fall into one of two camps. There are Institutes that organise their Fellowships on a thematic basis, encouraging Fellows whose work align within a chosen rubric for a specific period. Then there is the individual scholarship model, where Fellowships are issued solely on merit and there is no requirement that Fellows connect with any predetermined theme.  The original plans for Loughborough’s Institute of Advanced Studies inclined to the former, but we developed a new hybrid approach. This involved retaining research Themes but reducing their number and then introducing individual opportunities for Fellows to be invited to the Institute on a case-by-case basis.

Having found the Institute a home and establishing these future guiding principles, my involvement with the Loughborough IAS ended and I moved on to another leadership role. It has been extremely gratifying to see how the Institute has since developed and expanded under Professor Marsha Meskimmon’s directorship and how the Institute continues to expand Loughborough’s research culture and international collaborations.