Peace and conflict research

By funding ten collaborative projects in this research field, the BMBF wants to contribute to ensuring that political stakeholders and the society are adequately equipped to address international developments on the basis of academic findings. Violent conflicts also affect Europe: Russia's invasion of Ukraine has caused massive destruction in the country and given rise to hardship and fear, even outside of Ukraine.

The collaborations in the funding line are divided into two different funding formats: seven competence networks and three regional centres. Networking is of tremendous importance in both funding formats. In the competence networks, smaller, regionally scattered stakeholders with similar research priorities join forces to conduct joint research on future issues in the field of peace and conflict research. The competence networks are also to profile themselves as actors in the field of knowledge transfer, and develop advisory and information services for political stakeholders and the society. The regional centres, as alliances of universities and non-university research institutions of a region, are to develop into "beacons" of peace and conflict research in Germany.  Their task is to strengthen the interdisciplinarity and method pluralism of the research field within the framework of joint research and transfer projects, and promote the internationalisation of peace and conflict research through corresponding collaborations.

The funded research projects work in an interdisciplinary manner on different world regions and topics, including the impact of historical factors on current conflict dynamics and the role of modern technologies in conflicts. They develop transfer measures based on their findings in order to be able to support practitioners in dealing with current challenges in the field of conflict prevention and resolution. A large number of different practice partners are involved in the research projects from the very beginning.

The duration of these collaborations is initially four years - until 2026. If the evaluation is successful, a continuation of another two years is planned.