The Union Académique Internationale (IUA – International Union of Academies) is the oldest and largest federation of Academies having a national character and created for international cooperation. Founded in 1919, the aim of the IUA is to encourage cooperation in the advancement of studies through collaborative research and publications in those branches of learning promoted by the Academies and institutions represented in the IUA - philology, archeology, history, the moral, political and social sciences..[1] It has hundreds of member organizations from 39 different countries, and is organized under Belgian law as an international association having the pursuit of knowledge/learning as its aim.
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As an international organization of learned societies and academies, the IUA has a disproportionate influence compared to its relatively small budget. Its approval of a project can bring in funding from other international organizations and it routinely works with UNESCO and CIPSH (an organization which it helped to found in 1949). The IUA can fund projects either through its member organizations (some of which are themselves very large, such as the American Council of Learned Societies in the United States) or through the action of its Bureau (see officers and staff below). The organization currently supports 51 different projects.
Projects can fall into one of the following categories:
In addition, the member Academies, participating in projects in any of these catogeries, finance their own research work and provide the costs of their own publications in the framework of the project.
The 81st General Assembly of the UAI was held in Oslo at the seat of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, from 1 to 6 June 2007.
In keeping with the decision of the Lisbon (2003) General Assembly, a one quarter of active UAI projects will be intensively reviewed by a panel of outside experts and reported on to the General Assembly. For 2007, those projects are:
The UAI is organized under a delegate and general assembly structure, with a bureau that is invested with the primary executive and administrative functions. The current officers and keys staff members are:
President: Miklós MARÓTH (Hungary) 2007-2010. Magyar Tudományos Akadémia
Vice-Presidents:
President: Agostino PARAVICINI BAGLIANI (Switzerland) 2004-2007 Académie suisse des Sciences Humaines et sociales (Swiss Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences)
Vice-Presidents:
Members:
Secretary general: Léo HOUZIAUX (Académie royale de Belgique)
Deputy Secretary general: Jean-Luc DE PAEPE (Académie royale de Belgique)