Union Académique Internationale

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The Union Académique Internationale ( English International Union of Academies ) is an international association of academies that deal with culture and history in a broader sense. It was founded in 1919 on the initiative of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres .

History and tasks

At a first meeting in Paris in May 1919, a first version of the association's statutes was adopted, which was revised and adopted a year later. The seat of the Union Académique Internationale is the Académie royale des Sciences, des Lettres et des Beaux-Arts de Belgique in Brussels , its first president was Henri Pirenne .

The aim was to promote cooperation as well as joint research and publishing in the areas represented by the members and participating academies of the Union: philology , archeology , history , human sciences , political and social sciences . The union had 15 members in 1920, and has now grown to 39. The president from 2010 to 2013 was Andersen Øivind from the Norwegian Academy of Sciences .

The Union Académique Internationale is one of the two successor organizations to the International Association of Academies , which was established in 1899 and worked in the sections of natural sciences (Sciences) and humanities (Lettres). By 1914 the Association met at 5 general assemblies in Paris, London, Vienna, Rome and St. Petersburg and decided there to carry out 31 companies, 19 scientific, 11 humanities and, as an interdisciplinary one, the edition of Leibniz's works.

After the end of the First World War , at a congress in Brussels from July 18 to 28, 1918, on the initiative of the Entente states and in particular France, the founding of the International Research Council for the natural sciences and the Union Académique Internationale for the humanities as the successor organization to the International Association of Academies decided without, however, formally triggering the association. In the statute of the International Research Council , the participation of the academies of the central powers , i.e. Germany and its allies in the war, was expressly excluded, but the Union did not have such a statute. When Germany joined the League of Nations in 1926, both academic associations were invited to join Germany. However, since the German-speaking academies assumed that the International Association of Academies would continue to exist and did not accept the new foundations, there was initially no organizational merger. Nevertheless, scientific relationships between individual scientists and at congresses have gradually been revived. It was not until May 13, 1935 that the German cartel academies were accepted into the Union Académique.

organization

The organizational structure includes a permanent branch with the official office and an administrative secretariat; the most important body is the general assembly of its members. There are also scientific committees, management committees, a finance and accounting committee, and spontaneous committees for new or special projects.

Based on the relationship between a project and the Union, there are three project categories:

  1. Projects that are directly dependent on a member. In order to be able to take over the patronage of the Union, the general assembly has to agree. Financially, these projects are dependent on the executing academy, which also provides the head of the project. The Union provides a committee of international scientists for the project and is otherwise only active in an advisory capacity. Annual reporting to the general meeting is mandatory. The Union can make a financial contribution to the project in individual cases.
  2. Projects which are carried out directly by the Union and for which the Union also assumes scientific and financial responsibility and management. Annual reporting to the general meeting is mandatory. Research and subsequent publication are usually funded by the Union.
  3. Projects for which the Union only acts as a patron on the proposal of one or more members. The Union is not involved financially in the implementation. The member academies that submitted the proposal appoint the director, organize the work and bear financial responsibility

Projects

On this organizational basis, the Union participates exclusively in basic research in the areas it represents: it publishes critical and facsimile editions of literary and philosophical works, collections of historical and archaeological material, language atlases and archaeological maps, encyclopedias, dictionaries and catalogs. Examples include the Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum , the Catalogus Commentariorum et Translationum , the Middle Latin Dictionary , the Tabula Imperii Romani , the Forma Orbis Romani , the Corpus philosophorum medii aevi , the Atlas of the Greek and Roman world and the Monumenta Musicae Byzantinae .

Academies involved in projects bear their own financial expenses for research and publication. In the founding year 1920, the number of projects taken over by the Union was 3. Up to the Second World War there were a total of 13 projects. Around 50 projects are currently being carried out. The projects supported do not have to be related to European culture. By 1935, three projects relating to Indonesia, Japan and the Islamic world had already been carried out. Nowadays, in addition to projects on Middle Eastern archeology and pre-Columbian America, projects on India, China, Central Asia, Central Africa and the Pacific region are funded.

Relationships

Scientific exchange promoted by the Union is not limited to the exchange between the member academies and institutions, rather the Union as a separate body is also related to UNESCO or the Conseil International de la Philosophie et des Sciences Humaines (CIPSH), which is UNESCO and to other international or higher-level scientific associations such as the Union of German Academies of Sciences and Humanities . The Union was actively involved in the founding of the CIPSH in 1949. As a result, the Union was repeatedly financially supported by the CIPSH.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Conrad Grau : The Prussian Academy and the re-establishment of international scientific contacts after 1918. In: Wolfram Fischer (Ed.): The Prussian Academy of Sciences in Berlin 1914–1945 (= interdisciplinary working groups, Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences. Research reports. Vol. 8th). Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-05-003327-4 , pp. 279-315.
  2. ^ Conrad Grau: The Prussian Academy and the re-establishment of international scientific contacts after 1918. In: Wolfram Fischer (Ed.): The Prussian Academy of Sciences in Berlin 1914–1945 (= interdisciplinary working groups, Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences. Research reports. Vol. 8th). Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-05-003327-4 , p. 293.
  3. ^ Conrad Grau: The Prussian Academy and the re-establishment of international scientific contacts after 1918. In: Wolfram Fischer (Ed.): The Prussian Academy of Sciences in Berlin 1914–1945 (= interdisciplinary working groups, Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences. Research reports. Vol. 8th). Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-05-003327-4 , p. 313.

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