The Cambridge Institute for Renaissance Studies is an independent non-profit association dedicated to education, training and research in the period from the mid-15th to the mid-17th centuries, with a focus on music and culture. It is directed by Matthew Alec Gouldstone, Francis Knights and Edward Wickham, and is based in Cambridge.

As well as hosting conferences and symposia, bringing together scholars and practitioners from many disciplines, CIRS runs long and short training courses, publishes a new specialist periodical, the Journal of Sixteenth-Century Music, and has three affiliated music ensembles:

• The Cambridge Early Music Consort (University of Cambridge student ensemble)

• L’Isola (Professional 16th century ensemble)

• The Clerks (Professional 15th century ensemble)