The Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies at the University of British Columbia is committed foremost to excellence in research; its goal is to stimulate collaborative, creative, innovative interdisciplinary research that makes important advances in knowledge. A guiding principle is that excellence and truly innovative research are achieved in a highly collaborative international research environment, where UBC scholars have sustained opportunity to exchange ideas with national and international scholars, to work together on innovative research, develop new thinking that is beyond disciplinary boundaries, and engage in intellectual risk-taking. The Institute respects diversity of perspectives and backgrounds, research embedded in the community and integration of multimodal and expressive arts as an important component of research across all disciplines.