The Centre for Advanced Study (CAS) at the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters is a basic research institution where outstanding researchers from Norway and abroad are invited to spend a year. During their stay at CAS, researchers are excused from all duties other than pure research, giving them the time they need to bring all their creativity to bear in an inspiring international environment together with colleagues from their own and other disciplines. The goal is to raise the level of Norway's basic and interdisciplinary research to the highest international level.

Each year, group leaders are chosen from among prominent Norwegian researchers to head three research groups in the following fields:

• Humanities / Theology
• Social sciences / Law
• Natural sciences / Medicine / Mathematics