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[caption id="attachment_928" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Researchers at the OIB, 2016[/caption]How is research at the OIB organised?The OIB conducts and supports research on (and in) the Arab region and the wider Middle East. Research addresses historical and contemporary matters, and shares the commitment to a systematic study of primary sources, regional agents, local conditions, discursive contexts and methodology. This provides a common conceptual framework for the work in and between the academic disciplines represented at the OIB, such as the history of the Middle East, Islamic studies, Arabic studies, social sciences, anthropology and cultural studies.Research at the OIB is organised in four strands: doctoral and postdoctoral projects, third-party funded projectsm and mid-term research projects of the research associates. The OIB grants support to doctoral students during their fieldwork or writing phases, and gives postdoc fellows the opportunity to join the OIB research community for up to one year in order to conduct their projects. Individual and collaborative projects of the research associates and the directorate are developed over several years. All researchers generally participate in the institute’s activities (see OIB Events). The weekly internal colloquium is one arena where researchers regularly meet to present their projects, up to twice a year, and exchange their insights and experiences.Research clusters organise mid-term research projects of the associates and the directorate. They secure continuous research perspectives, each sustained by several projects. They incorporate externally funded research projects and include team-based, as well as individual endeavours. Clusters highlight research questions that inform, or at least are an integral part of, several projects, and thus foster a collaborative aspect of our work.In following blog posts over the coming weeks, we will introduce our research clusters and give insights into our current research projects. You are of course welcome to browse our website at any time to find out more about a particular project.