Historical Background

Institutes for Advanced Study exist in most major research countries. The first one was created at Princeton in 1933, principally to accommodate Jewish researchers and intellectuals who had been forced to leave Germany. Other IAS were set up thereafter, first in the US (at Standford and Duke), and then worldwide, notably in Berlin, Uppsala, Budapest and Bologna.

In France, four projects for creating IAS were developed in parallel as of 2006, in Paris, Lyon, Nantes and Marseille.

The plan to create an IEA in the Aix-Marseille region began to take shape in 2007 when the project was included in the Government-Region Contract and IMéRA’s installation on the Longchamp plateau was confirmed by the Marseille Municipal Council.

The intellectual planning of the Institute was carried out by a collective group of researchers from all fields, who met each week over a period of months, along with the project initiator, Robert Ilbert, to define IMéRA’s scientific orientation.

IMéRA is a Member of the French IAS Network (Réseau Français des Instituts d’Études Avancées – RFIEA), along with the IAS of Paris, Nantes and Lyon, and is now an association founded by the three Universities of Aix-Marseille and the CNRS.

In September 2008, the Institute opened on the premises of the former “Astronomers’ Centre” (Maison des astronomes), on the site which until April 2008 was occupied by the Marseille-Provence Astronomic Observatory (Observatoire d’Astronomie de Marseille-Provence), which is now located at the Château-Gombert Science Park.

Work to transform the premises will begin as of 2009, and is expected to last until 2011. While full-scale work cannot be envisaged until 2011, the Institute’s activities have already begun.