Consulting & Coordination
FINO sees itself as an institution offering advisory expertise in the field of "science management" for science and university policy issues. This concerns primarily the evaluation and strategic development of the sciences related to Islam and/or the Middle East, including Islamic theological studies and their supporting institutions, as well as the positioning of these sciences in the overall field of the humanities and social sciences.
National context
The forum advises on the design of the research landscape in Switzerland related to Islam and the Middle East, especially regarding the institutionalization of Islamic-theological studies. The Forum aims to establish a close partnership with the existing research and teaching institutions in Islamic Studies, Middle East Studies and Oriental Studies as well as other Islamic and Middle Eastern related sciences at Swiss universities. It also cooperates closely with the Swiss Centre for Islam and Society (University of Fribourg) and the Middle East Mediterranean (MEM) Freethinking Platform (Università della Svizzera italiana).
Internationaler context
The Forum seeks networking with transdisciplinary institutions and research centres in an international frame. These include for example, the Academy for Islam in Science and Society (AIWG) at the University of Frankfurt am Main as a university platform for supra-regional research and cooperation between actors of Islamic-theological studies, the Muslim community and other socio-political and civil society institutions, the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies at the University of Tel Aviv, the Islamic Cultures and Societies Research Unit (ICSRU), Aarhus University and the Leibniz Institute Center for Modern Orient (ZMO), Berlin.