After passing through planning, foundational, recruiting, and research strengthening phases, the IEAS entered into a steady and mature development phase. Then, in 2003, Academia Sinica was promoting large-scale organizational reform, and the IEAS faced the possibility of being downgraded to a research center. After a series of debates, much persuasion on the part of our research colleagues, and strenuous negotiations between then IEAS Director Dr. Lee Yucheng and Academia Sinica President Dr. Yuan T. Lee, the Institute was able to continue along the established research trajectory, and academic and administrative reforms in other directions. The IEAS has been more actively expanding research topics, extending academic attention to East Asia and Southeast Asia, establishing research networks with scholars and experts in related fields, and gradually adding academic discourses on the construction of Asia-Pacific perspectives in fundamental and practical research. At the same time, the IEAS is also actively recruiting outstanding talents. During the Institute of American Culture years, the quota for research fellows was 40. Before reaching the ideal research staffing levels, the Institute was restructured to become the IEAS, which expanded its staffing levels to include European Studies. With successive directors (see Appendix II for details) working tirelessly to expand the recruitment of talents and requesting that Academia Sinica increase the quota for hiring new research fellows, between August 2012 and July 2018, a total of seven new researchers joined the Institute. In addition, to enable the new colleagues could devote themselves fully to research, the directors strove to acquire such subsidies as the Special Outstanding Talent Award of the Ministry of Science and Technology (currently the Research Subsidy Incentives of the Ministry of Science and Technology) and the Recruitment and Retention of Special Outstanding Talent Award of Academia Sinica. In recent years, the IEAS has been more concerned with elevating the voices of young research colleagues, listening to their research ideas and plans, and providing support with administrative resources within reasonable limits. The directors have also encouraged colleagues to submit forth new ideas to amend laws and regulations on the existing system of organization through open communication and consensus seeking within the Institute. For instance, to make up for placing overly much emphasis on recruiting researchers by disciplines in the past, the IEAS has moved toward enhancing the significance and dominance of each thematic research project, and modifying the procedures for hiring talents in order to keep up with the times. The methodology for recruiting research fellows, doctoral candidates, postdoctoral fellows, visiting scholars, and the planning of academic conferences must be carefully devised and discussed by members of the various thematic research projects. Specifically, when coordinating the recruitment of research fellows, job announcements and selection of candidates must reflect 4. Successive Directors and Their Contributions In the Beginning: The Origin and Evolution of the Institute of European and American Studies 10
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