Founded in 1996, the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies is the senior research institute at UBC. It supports research through collaborative, interdisciplinary initiatives that have the potential to make significant advances in knowledge. The Institute brings together scholars from UBC with distinguished researchers and experts worldwide to investigate fundamental research, drawing upon and contributing to a wide range of diverse disciplines. In recognition of the current intellectual and funding landscape, one of the primary goals of the Peter Wall Institute is to foster new collaborative, multidisciplinary research groups, meetings, and international exchanges to tackle a wide range of research. As well as helping to bridge Departmental and Faculty boundaries within UBC, the Institute is committed to facilitating contacts between outstanding researchers at UBC and distinguished researchers from around the world. The Institute aims to create a community of scholars, composed of renowned researchers from faculties and schools across the UBC campus, contributing significantly to the university's intellectual life. The primary, overriding concern in all Institute activities is to promote excellence in interdisciplinary, innovative and unique research unlikely to occur without Institute funding. The Institute's programs, including financial awards, are centred on UBC's Vancouver campus and can be grouped into two categories: Thematic and Residential. Thematic Programs involve establishing an overall research theme in which scholars with the relevant expertise are gathered together. These consist of Exploratory Workshops, colloquia, Theme Development Workshops and the Major Thematic Grant, which provides funding of up to $500,000 over a three to five-year period to a broad interdisciplinary team of UBC and external scholars to research a new area. Residential programs focus on bringing together distinguished researchers from UBC and worldwide to spend time at the Institute. These residencies, ranging from one month to one year, encourage scholars' interaction from various disciplines in exploring new research directions. These include the Peter Wall Distinguished Professor, Distinguished Scholars in Residence, Early Career Scholars, Distinguished Visiting Professor, and the Wall Summer Institute for Research (previously the Visiting Junior Scholar program).