The Chr. Michelsens Institutt for Videnskap og Åndsfrihet (CMI) was founded in 1930, and is currently the largest centre for development research in Scandinavia. In 1992, the Department for Natural Science and Technology established the ''Christian Michelsen Research AS'', and the CMR Group.(cmr.no) The

University of Bergen The University of Bergen ( no, Universitetet i Bergen, ) is a research-intensive state university located in Bergen, Norway. As of 2019, the university has over 4,000 employees and 18,000 students. It was established by an act of parliament in 194 ...

is the main owner in The CMR Group. The Department of Social Science and Development became the Chr. Michelsen Institute. CMI is an independent, non-profit research foundation for policy-oriented and applied development research. Headed by the director Espen Villanger, it employs 40 social scientists, primarily anthropologists, economists and political scientists. CMI receives core funding from the Norwegian Research Council (NFR) and project support from Norwegian state ministries and agencies, and Norwegian and international non-governmental organisations. CMI hosts the

Anti-Corruption Resource Centre Anti-corruption (or anticorruption) comprises activities that oppose or inhibit corruption. Just as corruption takes many forms, anti-corruption efforts vary in scope and in strategy. A general distinction between preventive and reactive measu ...

, also referred to as U4.

Research and cooperation

The institute's geographical focus is on Sub-Saharan Africa,

South Asia South Asia is the southern subregion of Asia, which is defined in both geographical Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth descr ...

Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...

, the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Province), East Thrace (Europ ...

, and partly also

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...

. CMI focuses its research around ten thematic areas:

Aid In international relations, aid (also known as international aid, overseas aid, foreign aid, economic aid or foreign assistance) is – from the perspective of governments – a voluntary transfer of resources from one country to another. Ai ...

Global health Global health is the health of the populations in the worldwide context; it has been defined as "the area of study, research and practice that places a priority on improving health and achieving equity in health for all people worldwide". Problem ...

and development,

Governance Governance is the process of interactions through the laws, norms, power or language of an organized society over a social system ( family, tribe, formal or informal organization, a territory or across territories). It is done by the gove ...

and corruption,

Natural resources Natural resources are resources that are drawn from nature and used with few modifications. This includes the sources of valued characteristics such as commercial and industrial use, aesthetic value, scientific interest and cultural value. ...

, Peace and conflict,

Rights Rights are legal, social, or ethical principles of freedom or entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal system, social convention, or ethical theory ...

and legal institutions,

Public finance Public finance is the study of the role of the government in the economy. It is the branch of economics that assesses the government revenue and government expenditure of the public authorities and the adjustment of one or the other to achiev ...

management, Poverty dynamics,

Culture Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups ...

s and politics of

faith Faith, derived from Latin ''fides'' and Old French ''feid'', is confidence or trust in a person, thing, or In the context of religion, one can define faith as " belief in God or in the doctrines or teachings of religion". Religious people ofte ...

, and

Gender Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to femininity and masculinity and differentiating between them. Depending on the context, this may include sex-based social structures (i.e. gender roles) and gender identity. Most cultures ...

relations from the local to the global. CMI has formal cooperation agreements with various research institutions in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Through institutional cooperation CMI facilitates joint research and projects, institutional development and competence building. In Norway, CMI has close formal institutional collaborations with the

(UiB) and the

Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe * Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway * Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including ...

(NHH), including teaching, joint research projects and support to graduate students and PhD candidates.

History

Founded in 1930, the Chr. Michelsen Institute is named after Norwegian statesman

Christian Michelsen Peter Christian Hersleb Kjerschow Michelsen (15 March 1857 – 29 June 1925), better known as Christian Michelsen, was a Norwegian shipping magnate and statesman. He was the first prime minister of independent Norway and Norway's 9th prime minis ...

(1857-1925); it was the first independent research institute in Northern Europe. Michelsen bequeathed a large part of his fortune to the establishment of a foundation for science and intellectual freedom. The Chr. Michelsen Institute was established on the founder's birthday, 15 March 1930. In his will, Michelsen specified four areas of priority: humanities, natural sciences, technology and medicine and "cultural and scientific work to foster tolerance between nations and races - religious, social, economic and political." It was the latter formulation that justified a subsequent focus on development issues. The economist Just Faaland and the political scientist

Stein Rokkan Stein Rokkan (July 4, 1921 – July 22, 1979) was a Norwegian political scientist and sociologist. He was the first professor of sociology at the University of Bergen and a principal founder of the discipline of comparative politics. He foun ...

initiated and developed broader research programmes and employed more people in the 1950s. They financed the expansion through participation in international research programmes and by mobilising other financial resources. In 1961 they had defined research programmes in international economics and comparative politics. In 1965, the Development Action and Research Programme (DERAP), a development economics project on growth problems in developing countries was formally established. The DERAP model combined research work at the Institute in Bergen with applied and practical work in developing countries, a model to which CMI still adheres. DERAP gradually recruited other social scientists in addition to the economists. In the early 1980s, Just Faaland established a Human Rights Programme which soon grew to become the other main focus in social science research. In 1992, the Department for Natural Science and Technology established the Christian Michelsen Research AS, and the CMR Group.(cmr.no) The University of Bergen is the main owner in CMR. The Department of Social Science and Development became the Chr. Michelsen Institute. DERAP and the Human Rights Programme merged, and research became the main objective. Practical work in developing countries is still important, but long term assignments are replaced by shorter missions and research-co-operation in the South. At the time of CMI’s 75th anniversary in 2005 the institution’s annual turnover was about NOK 55m.

Notable CMI participants

Viggo Brun Viggo Brun (13 October 1885 – 15 August 1978) was a Norwegian professor, mathematician and number theorist. Contributions In 1915, he introduced a new method, based on Legendre's version of the sieve of Eratosthenes, now known as the ' ...

* Helmer Dahl * Odd Dahl * Just Faaland * Egil Andersen Hylleraas * Ole David Koht Norbye * Fridtjof Nansen *

Thoralf Skolem Thoralf Albert Skolem (; 23 May 1887 – 23 March 1963) was a Norwegian mathematician who worked in mathematical logic and set theory. Life Although Skolem's father was a primary school teacher, most of his extended family were farmers. Skolem ...

* Kristian Schjelderup * Harald Sverdrup

References

External links

Chr. Michelsen InstituteAnti-Corruption Resource Centre (U4)Christian Michelsen ResearchBergen Resource Centre for International DevelopmentPublic AnthropologistPublic Anthropologist blog
{{authority control Coordinates on Wikidata Research institutes in Norway Development studies