Research Summits

IAS Research Summits are week-long events bringing leading international scholars – academics, policy-makers, artists, activists and/or public intellectuals – to the University to work with Loughborough colleagues in setting ambitious and innovative research agendas for the future.

IAS Research Summits should be focused on a theme, topic or idea that is timely, compelling, and potentially transformative. The theme should demonstrate a level of thought leadership that cuts across disciplines, enabling research activity that creates connections between the arts, humanities, social sciences and STEM subjects.

IAS Research Summits should provide a lasting legacy of outcomes and impact, including the development of new relationships and avenues for future collaborative research projects, co-publications and funding applications. Proposals should include tangible plans for legacy-building and indicate how activities undertaken during the summit will support this work.

IAS Research Summits may be proposed along one of two routes:

Speculative route

A route for initiating new and dynamic international research dialogues, focused on horizon-scanning and/or blue-skies thinking. Proposals through this route may involve a speculative leap forward and/or develop propositions for novel areas of future research.

Extensive route

A route that builds upon, but does not reiterate, prior research collaboration. Proposals through this route will extend or transform understanding, creating a step change in an area of extant research excellence through new expertise and/or approaches from different disciplines.

In both routes, there should be an adventurous engagement with ideas and a research enquiry that takes risks to generate thought leadership through international dialogue and collaboration.

Due to the exciting challenges such an interdisciplinary programme presents, we require proposals to be submitted by a coordinating team comprising up to four LU colleagues from at least two disciplinary areas. In convening this team, we encourage inclusion of staff from across career stages and consideration of equity and diversity amongst members of the coordinating team and the list of proposed IAS Visiting Fellows.

The coordinating team will be responsible for: nominating between three and five international scholars as potential IAS Visiting Fellows, leading the organisation, in close collaboration with colleagues at the IAS, of the public-facing Roundtable on the theme of the Research Summit, and developing the closed working sessions held during the week of the Summit.

We envisage that applications will make explicit their plans for engaging with a range of LU colleagues and the doctoral research community in both the public-facing Roundtable and the working sessions. It is further anticipated that the design of the activities during the week will evidence their plans for legacy-building.

We recognise that applications will be an indication of potential activity at this stage; and we ask that, in approaching potential visitors, you ensure that they understand that this is a competitive process.

Timescales: 

Provisional application deadline for Research Summits held between February 2025 – June 2025:
5pm on Friday 2nd August 2024

Provisional application deadline for Research Summits held between August 2025 – December 2025:
5pm on Friday 7th February 2025

To apply:

To apply you need to complete an application form and submit it to ias@lboro.ac.uk before the current deadline.