New director of KNAW institute NIAS wants to protect academic freedoms

Science is under pressure in so many ways that “canaries in the coal mine” are needed to protect academic freedoms. If they ask for help, action must follow, so that they do not “die” in the mine.

This is what Utrecht legal scholar and historian Antoine Buyse says, who will take over as the new director of the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study (NIAS) in Amsterdam in April. He will succeed sociologist Jan Willen Duyvendak, who is retiring.

In response to his appointment, Buyse identifies a series of threats to free science. “From marketization to cutbacks and from distrust of experts to sometimes even outright oppression and persecution of scientists.” The NIAS, part of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, must contribute to the KNAW’s task as “guardian and interpreter” of science, says Buyse.

With the ornithological imagery, the new director varies the two birds that NIAS often uses to represent its tasks: the owl as a symbol of curiosity and wisdom beyond the issues of the day, and the canary, which signals problems. The latter function is necessary now that science is under international pressure, says Buyse.

Buyse (48) is now professor of human rights at Utrecht University and director of the Human Rights Study and Information Center (SIM) of that institution. He focuses on human rights in Europe, the rule of law and the role of civil society organizations. Buyse calls the NIAS “a free port to conduct science with more depth and at a slower speed.”

Founded in 1970, NIAS aims to be an “intellectual haven” for researchers in the social sciences and humanities. It awards a number every year fellowships to international scientists, artists or writers. In addition, the institute has a safe havenproject set up for threatened academics, including from Ukraine and Gaza.

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