CAT - Constructive Advanced Thinking
The Constructive Advanced Thinking (CAT) programme aims at supporting small groups of
excellent early-career researchers conducting fundamental research dedicated to developing
new ideas to understand and to tackle current or emerging societal challenges. In addition,
the ambition is to help fostering the transformation of these ideas into real-world action as well
as to foster future leading networks of advanced thinking.
The CAT programme supports research groups consisting of three to five individuals, headed
by an early-career researcher of any discipline, and possibly including PhD students, for work
on their project for a duration up to three years. In order to enable them to engage in conversations
and develop their ideas further, the groups are invited to meet for short stays (i.e. maximum two
weeks) at participating institutes, where they also get the opportunity to get in contact with the
Fellows in residence at the institutes as well as local research communities. With few guidelines
and a very light application process, CAT is designed to maximize the creativity of groups.
The CAT concept was developed within the framework of the Network of European Institutes for
Advanced Studies (NETIAS), of which SCAS was a founding member in 2004. The initiative was
launched in 2019 and is currently supported by twelve Institutes for Advanced Study across Europe.
Read more about CAT >>
