The Union Académique Internationale is the global organization of national academies in the fields of the humanities and social sciences. Its aims are to initiate, recognize, foster and fund basic long-term international research projects. Created in 1919 in Paris with a general secretariat established in Brussels, the UAI comprises at the moment more than a hundred academies from 63 countries from all continents. Recognizing that many substantial projects in humanities and social sciences cannot be realized within a short time span, the UAI prides itself on being willing to support significant long-term projects. The UAI already sponsored more than 3,000 books. 

Many of them are fundamental reference tools, such as dictionaries, encyclopedias, and text editions, some of which are disseminated on the web. The UAI is constantly launching new international projects, most recently the transformation of Mediterranean cities throughout history. Projects adopted by the UAI are expected to be based on cooperation between several national academies. In order to achieve its aims, the UAI relies on funding from private and public sources.

The UAI advocates for the role of the humanities and the social sciences in a changing world.

Projects of UAI:

In a perspective of openness to the world and establishing of a collective and international dynamic, the UAI’s mission is to aid the establishment and the favoring of initiatives that are, almost without except on basic research (critical editions of literary and philosophical texts, collections of documents and archaeological materials, linguistic and archaeological atlases, glossaries, dictionaries, catalogs, etc.). These projects are titled, in French, “entreprises”.

Since 1919, the number of projects sponsored, supported or supervised by the UAI has steadily increased. From the first three projects (Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, Alchemical texts and Works of Grotius), we came today to the number of 76 projects.

General Secretariat of UAI:

Since its foundation, the International Union of Academies has its headquarters at the Palace of the Academies, in Brussels. The Académie royale des Sciences, des Lettres et des Beaux-Arts de Belgique is in charge of the General Secretariat of the Union, and RASAB, as department of international relations, through its experience, is involved in the management of the UAI Secretariat.