Established in 2003, the Banff International Research Station (BIRS) is a North American initiative that addresses the imperatives of collaborative research, of cross-disciplinary synergy, and of intense and prolonged interactions between scientists. BIRS is a unique infrastructure that provides a creative environment for the exchange of ideas, knowledge, and methods within the mathematical sciences and their vast array of applications.
Unlike any other North American institute, the main mode of operation at BIRS is a series of weekly workshops, each hosting 42 researchers in disciplines in which mathematics, computer science and statistics are used in deep and novel ways. There are 48 such workshops each year. In addition, the Station hosts teams of two to four researchers for periods of two weeks to allow collaborative, distraction-free, research and/or to finish major scientific projects. The setting of the Station has also been ideal for summer schools and graduate summer camps, for hosting focused collaborative research groups, and for promoting university-industry interactions. Every year, the station hosts over 2000 researchers from 400 institutions in more than 30 countries who participate in over 60 different programs.
BIRS represents a new level of development in North American scientific cooperation as it brought together for the very first time: Canada's NSERC, the US National Science Foundation (NSF), the Alberta government, and Mexico's National Council for Science and Technology (CONACYT) in a partnership of this scale, providing new and exciting opportunities for North American Faculty and students giving them access to their international counterparts at the highest levels and across all mathematical disciplines.
