This investigative report found that a "history of failed governance" at the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies (PWIAS) contributed to challenges around academic freedom raised by former PWIAS Director Philippe Tortell when he resigned in 2018. Tortell alleged that the Board of Trustees of the PWIAS and the University of British Columbia (UBC) Administration had directed him to realign PWIAS research activities and funding with existing UBC research priorities. The report notes that actions taken by the PWIAS Board of Trustees that year were "inconsistent with principles of collegial governance" including the "primacy of academics over academic decision-making". The report strongly recommends governance reform at PWIAS, stating that attending to governance is the best way to ensure that PWIAS endures and prospers as a space of free and unfettered inquiry and fulfils its unique mandate to perform deep and unconstrained research into some of the most profound questions and challenges facing humanity.