A different approach to science

The physicists of the day have few opportunities to gather on the international stage to talk about major breakthroughs in their discipline.

The Solvay Conferences on Physics fill this shortcoming by instituting triennial meetings on physics.

When the Institute is founded in 1912, there is no public institution in Belgium that offers research grants or subsidies (the National Fund for Scientific Research will only be set up in 1928). 

So the Solvay Institutes offer an alternative and a future prospect for research in sociology, physiology, economics and physics, and soon also in chemistry.