The quality of the academic activities and the selection of Fellows are ensured by an Academic Council comprising scholars of high international renown. The research conducted at CAS aims not only to cross, but to question disciplinary boundaries, national scholarly traditions, and conventional approaches thus allowing for innovative and challenging intellectual creativity at the highest level.

CAS is a member of the internationally acknowledged network of "Institutes for Advanced Study" in the US and Europe, while its academic contacts encompass major European universities and prominent international scholars, thus providing its researchers with access to the widest pan-European academic networks in the field of the Social Sciences and the Humanities. CAS aims to attract young talents as well as outstanding senior scholars by offering institutional conditions conducive to innovative research, intellectual creativity and dialogue, thereby supporting the formation of new scientific elites. With its professional, lean and flexible management, CAS sets a best practice model for academic administration, and is a reliable partner for donors and scholars alike. CAS provides financial and institutional support for post-doctoral qualification and for research programmes in the Humanities and the Social Sciences. By initiating and hosting collaborative multidisciplinary projects and inviting regional scholars, as well via its (thematically-) independent fellowships programmes, it helps to establish a viable intellectual network and promote practical academic collaboration between the countries of Southeast Europe. With the help of other advanced study institutes, national and foreign universities, and academic and cultural associations, it works to re-establish the tradition of intellectual communities and to facilitate open critical debate and exchange on a national and trans-national level.

CAS operates as a principal hub of research and debates on the improvement of higher education and academic research in the country and the broader region and thus provides access to quality full-text databases and specialized literature via its electronic resource centre and library, and fosters local and international academic community-building via several dynamic online projects.