The Institut d'études avancées de Nantes is one of the many social and cultural players whose regional subsidy has been withdrawn for 2025.
The impact of this withdrawal, amounting to €200,000 a year, or 10% of the Institute's budget, is major. An immediate domino effect was set in motion, since at the Institute, as in most of the structures affected, the practice of cross-financing is an unavoidable modality. In December, the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SEFRI) announced that it was freezing its funding for the Institute's activities, which also amounted to €200,000 per year.
Every year since 2009, the city of Nantes has had the honor of welcoming between 10 and 20 scientists from all over the world to its facilities for foreign researchers. By staying in Nantes for several months over the course of an academic year, these researchers bring their own unique approach to the area: through their scientific activities, they meet researchers from other universities in the Loire Valley, France and Europe, take part in thesis juries, give talks to students, explore archive collections...
Since 2022, the Institute has also been enriched by new working methods and original, complementary programs: the Arts, Societies and Contemporary Mutations Chair and the Dwelling in the Context of Planetary Limits Chair provide a home for particularly innovative research approaches. In the near future, the Chaire Communs. Savoirs, Pouvoirs, Crises will soon be opening its doors to one or more researchers and/or activists. Conceived and led by Camille de Toledo, the bifurcation scenario Vers une internationale des rivières et autres éléments de la nature encourages political, civic and scientific questioning around the legal personality of rivers. Like echo chambers, the Idées-débats conferences co-organized by le lieu unique, the Institut and Nantes university give the general public access to scientific reflections on desirable futures.
The Institut's Board of Directors, collegial management and team are mobilized to further the regeneration of this fine house, while remaining open to internationalism, diversity, interdisciplinarity and the broadening of horizons. Of course, this can only be achieved with the utmost restraint, and by resizing the structure to match the funding provided by our historical partners, Nantes Métropoles and Véolia, who remain committed and convinced of the relevance of such a think-tank.
This is where creativity, inventiveness and social innovation come into their own, to keep the heart of the Institut d'Études Avancées de Nantes beating: redirect it, choose to tighten its focus on key currents, and don't let the necessary reform get the better of the spirit of this place. The challenge is immense, but not impossible.
The Institute's management team
