The Max Weber Center for Advanced Studies (Max-Weber-Kolleg für kultur- und sozialwissenschaftliche Studien) is an international and interdisciplinary "high-ranking research centre which forms an avant-garde institution of the University of Erfurt," according to the European Commission's CORDIS.

[1] The Center's focal areas include "religion, science, and law as powers of interpretation and governance; interactions among cultures; social orderings and mentalities in radical change; and normative—in particular, ethical—issues.

[3] Prominent scientists from several different disciplines (i.e., sociology, history, philosophy, theology, religious studies, law, and economics) are appointed as temporary fellows.

Beginning in 2010, debate has ensued concerning the Center's future, especially its degree of autonomy from the university—a discussion that has found widespread coverage in local and even national media.

[15] Within this conceptual framework, the Center concentrates on three core fields of research: "the hermeneutic and orienting capacities of religion, law and science"; "the interactions between cultures, societal orders and mentalities during periods of radical social change"; and "action-theoretical principles in cultural and social sciences, and their linkages to and impacts on normative and, especially, ethical, questions.

With their own dissertation and habilitations projects, members of the graduate school (Kollegiaten) concentrate on various aspects of this research program in collaboration with the Center's fellows.