The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, established in autumn 2006, is based at the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Oxford. The Thomson Reuters Foundation has supported a programme of visiting fellowships for journalists from around the world based at what is now Green Templeton College in Oxford since 1983. The RISJ builds on this tradition and is now a university research centre for international comparative journalism. Anchored in the recognition of the key role of independent media in open societies and the power of information in the modern world, the Institute aims to serve as the leading forum for a productive engagement between scholars from a wide range of disciplines and the practitioners of journalism. It brings the depth and rigour of academic scholarship of the highest standards to major issues of relevance to the world of practice of news media. It is global in its perspective and in the content of its activities. Its expanded activities include short-term and long-term research projects, a regular series of seminars, workshops, annual conferences, debates and innovative curricular development, both independently and in meaningful collaboration with other centres in Oxford University and with the global world of practice.