International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS)

The International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS) is a research and exchange platform based in Leiden, the Netherlands. It encourages the multidisciplinary and comparative study of Asia, and actively promotes national and international co-operation. IIAS acts as a global mediator, bringing together academic and non-academic institutes in Asia and other parts of the world, including cultural, social and policy organisations. Without excluding other possibly interesting research areas in Asian studies, its focus is on urbanisation, heritage and globalisation.

IIAS objective is to encourage the multi-disciplinary and comparative study of Asia. To provide focus within such a broad remit, IIAS organises its research and other activities around the three thematic clusters: ‘Asian Cities’, ‘Global Asia’ and ‘Asian Heritages’. However, the scope of IIAS's research interests is naturally broad and remains open to new ideas for other important research topics.