Empirical studies of religion, values and society are spread across a number of institutions, in relatively small communities. The Research School Religion-Values-Society (RVS) is an initiative by the major Norwegian academic institutions within this field, as well as important institutions in Sweden and the United States, to bring together PhD-students and established scholars in order to develop better research and foster national and international cooperation, primarily through a strengthened and more comprehensive PhD education.

The RVS is funded by the Norwegian Research Council.

RVS generally offers three to four courses every year, one in the Spring semester, one in the Fall semester, and one Summer course at Lesbos. For each course it is possible to read a curriculum and write an essay. RVS follows the international standard for workload per ECTS (25-30 hours work per ECTS), and the different courses give either 3 or 5 ECTS. See the concrete courses to find out more.