A new kind of presence: Claes de Vreese becomes DIAS’ first Chair-in-Residence
With externally based DIAS Chair Claes de Vreese becoming the institute’s first Chair-in-Residence, DIAS is taking a new step towards a more connected, active and ambitious interdisciplinary research environment.
Ideas rarely arrive fully formed.
They grow through conversations, unexpected encounters and the presence of people who have the time and curiosity to carry them forward.
This has always been at the heart of the Danish Institute for Advanced Study. DIAS brings outstanding researchers together across disciplines, creating room for questions that do not fit neatly within the boundaries of a single field.
Now, DIAS is adding a new kind of presence to that community.
Professor Claes de Vreese will become the first DIAS Chair-in-Residence for the 2026/27 academic year, laying the foundation for work and initiatives that’ll go beyond. Claes is already an externally based DIAS Chair, where his primary academic employment has been at the University of Amsterdam. The new role will bring him fully into the everyday life and development of the institute.
His appointment marks the beginning of an initiative intended to create greater day-to-day momentum at DIAS, namely connecting people and ideas, developing new activities and turning emerging opportunities into lasting collaborations.
From connection to momentum
DIAS has long drawn its academic strength and international reach from its community of Chairs and Fellows.
Most DIAS Chairs already hold their primary appointments at SDU. The Chair-in-Residence initiative creates a different opportunity by bringing an externally based Chair into the institute’s daily work for a sustained period.
Through that presence, DIAS gains a stronger and more continuous connection to research communities, ideas and networks beyond SDU. It also creates greater capacity within the institute to activate the expertise, and opportunities already present across the DIAS community.
“The most important challenges facing society cannot be understood from a single perspective. DIAS creates a rare space where different forms of knowledge can meet.
As Chair-in-Residence, I hope to bring people and research environments closer together, strengthen DIAS’ connections to the world beyond SDU and help create the conditions for new ideas and collaborations to grow.”
-Claes de Vreese, Chair-in-residence
As the first person to take on the role, Claes de Vreese will also help shape what being a Chair-in-Residence can mean in practice.
During 2026/27, he will work closely with DIAS Chairs, Fellows and research environments across SDU. His role will include developing new research activities, creating connections across disciplines and institutions, and strengthening the presence of the social sciences within DIAS.
A familiar face in a new role
For Claes de Vreese, the appointment is both a new beginning and a continuation.
He is already an externally based DIAS Chair and Director of the Digital Democracy Centre at SDU. At the University of Amsterdam, where his primary academic appointment has been based, he is University Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Society and holds the Chair of Political Communication.
His research sits at the intersection of some of the defining questions of our time: How are artificial intelligence, algorithms and digital platforms changing journalism, politics and public debate? And how can democratic societies respond?
These questions do not belong to one discipline alone. They reach across communication, political science, computer science, law and the humanities, making Claes’ research and collaborative approach closely aligned with the interdisciplinary ambition of DIAS.
In 2026, he received the NWO Stevin Prize, one of the Netherlands’ highest distinctions for researchers whose work has made an exceptional contribution to society. The award recognized his research into the influence of big tech, algorithms and artificial intelligence on democracy.
“Our Chairs and Fellows are DIAS. Their ideas, expertise and international reach are the foundation of the institute.
By bringing one of our externally based Chairs into the everyday life of DIAS, we can turn more of that reach into new activities, collaborations and lasting institutional strength.”
-Sten Rynning, DIAS Director
Building new research environments
Members of a new research environment focusing on AI and journalism will begin joining DIAS in autumn 2026. A further group focusing on hybrid war and information will be developed and become physically based at DIAS in 2027.
Together, these activities will bring new researchers, perspectives and conversations into the DIAS building, all for the benefit of the institute. They will also create opportunities for collaboration with the wider community of Chairs and Fellows, including researchers working in fields that may initially appear far removed from political communication or digital democracy.
The relationships, research environments and ways of working established during the coming academic year can provide a foundation for work that continues to develop within DIAS.
In this way, Claes’ appointment creates an opportunity to build lasting institutional capacity as DIAS enters its next phase.
The beginning of a new chapter
The first year of the Chair-in-Residence initiative will be a formative one. It gives DIAS an exceptional opportunity to draw on Claes’ expertise, experience and international networks as the institute sets DIAS 4.0 in motion.
It will also allow DIAS to explore what becomes possible when an externally based Chair is brought into closer and more sustained contact with the institute’s everyday intellectual life.
For Sten Rynning, Claes is particularly well placed to begin that process.
– Claes already knows DIAS, shares our interdisciplinary ambition and has extensive experience in building research environments across institutional and national borders. He is the right person to help us shape this role and set DIAS 4.0 in motion. The opportunity now is to use his experience to build relationships, activities and research environments that can create lasting value for the institute, says Sten Rynning.
The shape of the role will continue to develop in dialogue with the DIAS community. Its ambition is already clear, to give ideas more room to grow, connections more opportunities to deepen and DIAS a stronger presence in the wider world of research.
With Claes de Vreese as its first Chair-in-Residence, DIAS is taking the first step on that journey, and we are very honored to welcome him.