CORE Project Institutions

The Peace Research Institute, Oslo (PRIO) was founded in 1959 and became a fully independent institute in 1966. It was one of the first centres of peace research in the world, and is Norway’s only peace research institute. Research at PRIO concentrates on the driving forces behind violent conflict, and on ways in which peace can be built, maintained and spread. In addition to theoretical and empirical research, PRIO also conducts policy‐oriented activities and is engaged in the search for solutions in cases of actual or potential violent conflict. PRIO hosts the editorial offices of two international journals that are published by SAGE in London: Journal of Peace Research and Security Dialogue. PRIO’s scholarly work is disseminated through publication in peer‐reviewed journals, as well as through books, reports and conference papers.

PRIO’s project portfolio includes research activities both inside and outside Norway funded by the Norwegian Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Defence, the Research Council of Norway, the United Nations, the World Bank, and the European Union. PRIO has broad experience in managing large international research projects. It hosts, for example the Centre for the Study of Civil War (CSCW), a 10 year, internationally oriented multidisciplinary enterprise with a total budget of approximately €15 million over 10 years that seeks to understand: why civil wars break out, how they are sustained, and what it takes to end them. PRIO researchers are also active in a number of EU research activities, among them, the Fifth Framework Network on Applied Global Justice and IP Liberty and Security in Europe, as well as the Sixth Framework Programmes projects The Changing Landscape of European Liberty and Security (CHALLENGE), Polarization and Conflict (PAC), and Cross-sector observations of Threat Perceptions and Research Priorities for Biological Homeland security in Europe (CORPS); as well as two COST networks, Small Arms Transfers, of which it is the initiator and leader, and The Social Construction of Threats; and Seventh Framework Programmes project Converging and conflicting ethical values in the internal/external security continuum in Europe (INEX).

St Andrews is Scotland's first University and the third oldest in the UK. For almost six centuries, it has upheld the tradition of academic excellence, attracting scholars of international repute and students from all over the world. The project research will be run from the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies (CPCS) within the School of International Relations, which is one of the UK's most highly rated departments for the study of International Relations. CPCS focuses on advancing critical theoretical, conceptual and empirical understandings of responses to conflict and the construction of peace. In particular it aims to interrogate the relationship between conflict and the forms of 'peace' being created in conflict zones mainly in the developing world today.

The Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies seeks to synthesize empirical data with sophisticated theoretical analyses aimed at the provision of discursive, theoretical and policy insights (as opposed to guidelines). The intention is to establish a recognisably coherent and innovative agenda for conflict research and to build connections with other related sub disciplines. The objective is to act as a forum for theoretical advancement and for accounts of case studies where important lessons can be learned about conflict and its redressal. The CPCS has research expertise in peace and conflict theory, peacebuilding, UN Peace Operations and statebuilding, ethnicity, and the role of organisations such as the UN, World Bank, EU, and OAU, and of other major donors in conflict zones around the world. Geographical expertise includes: Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, Uganda, the Middle East, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, East Timor, the Balkans, Turkey, Cyprus, Nepal, Kashmir.

Berghof Conflict Research was set up in 1993 by the Berghof Foundation for Conflict Studies in order to explore constructive procedures and models for dealing with conflicts, especially with ethnopolitical background. The Center aims to occupy the middle-ground between theory and practice in providing research on ideas, tools and resources for the practice of conflict transformation. Our interest centers on the nature of social change how it might be directed to the benefit of transition from violence to peace. We achieve our aims by a range of methods: our own original action research and conceptual work; commissioning related research by others; actively supporting the work of practitioner partners in the field; and offering policy advice and networking at the bilateral and multilateral levels.

The Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI), founded in 1965 by Altiero Spinelli as a non‐profit organization, is Italy’s major research centre in the fields of international politics and security as well as being Italy’s research institution with the most developed international network capabilities. The main objective of the Institute is to promote an understanding of international relations through interdisciplinary and policy‐oriented research, meetings and publications. Its main areas of interest are: Italian foreign policy, European integration, the Mediterranean and Middle East, transatlantic relations, international security and international political economy. IAI’s staff consists in 35 members, including 10 senior researchers, 12 researchers and 13 administrative personnel.

IAI has highly‐developed networks with research and policy institutes. It belongs to the following networks: EINIRAS (European Information Network on International Relations and Area Studies), EU-CONSENT, ISN (International Relations And Security Network), TEPSA (Trans European Policy Studies Association), the Transatlantic Editors’ Forum, and has been a founding member of EuroMesCo and currently hold the EuroMesCo Secretariat. The Institute’s research activities are supported by the library, which was established in 1965, containing over 24,000 volumes and periodicals, with approximately 1,000 new acquisitions per year catalogued on‐line. In the context of its research activities, IAI regularly organizes dissemination events, including national and international seminars and conferences and lectures by foreign and Italian guest speakers. The Institute disseminates its research results through regular publication outlets including its English‐language journal (The International Spectator, peer‐reviewed, Routledge), its online magazine (AffarInternazionali.it), its yearbook (L’Italia e la Politica Internazionale, Il Mulino), its monographs (IAI Quaderni) and its working paper series (Documenti IAI), in addition to the articles and books published by external Italian and foreign publishers.

Central European University was founded in 1991 with the explicit aim of helping the process of transition from dictatorship to democracy in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, and Central Asia. It was committed to bringing together students from these 30 countries and from Western democracies, and to nurturing respect for diverse cultures and opinions, human rights, constitutional government, and the rule of law. These aims ‐ all in step with promoting the values of the Open Society ‐ remain fundamental to CEU, but the University now cast its web wider. CEU continues to attract students from Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia but almost 50% of the applicants come from other parts of the world. With candidates from 120 countries, CEU draws students from the whole of the developing world, as well as from North America and Western Europe, Turkey and Southeast Asia. Our enrolled students come from 96 countries, our faculty from 30. There is no predominant national majority. This creates a uniquely international atmosphere which is one of the most appealing aspects of our student life. CEU focuses equally on research, teaching and issues of public policy. All three are fundamental to our mission for all three are essential to the development of civilized modern societies.

The Department of International Relations and European Studies (IRES) integrates international relations scholarship with regional expertise in both the Eastern and Western parts of the enlarged European Union together with the wider European neighborhood. It has a special, multi‐disciplinary expertise, both in terms of faculty and PhD students, in European foreign policy, peacebuilding, statebuilding and conflict resolution.

The University of Delhi is the premier university of India that was established in 1922 as a unitary, teaching and residential university by an Act of the then Central Legislative Assembly. Over the last eight decades the University has grown into one of the largest universities in the country. At present, there are 14 faculties, 86 academic departments and 79 colleges spread all over the city, with about 22,000 students. In an effort to cope with this enormous expansion, the University in the early seventies initiated a new organizational pattern based on the multi--‐campus concept. The South Campus made a beginning in 1973 by starting postgraduate Programmes in some departments of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences though offices and teaching activities shifted to the new campus only in 1983. The University has just completed the implementation of fibre‐optic net works on the North and South Campuses. The East and West Campuses of the University are also being set up. The East Campus is being developed with the University College of Medical Science as its nucleus, while the West Campus will have as its focus on Engineering and Technology. The University has 15 libraries. These are in addition to Libraries in the Colleges.

The Department of Political Science at University of Delhi, enjoys an exceptional reputation in both teaching and research in the discipline. Extremely rich in academic potential, comprising a faculty known widely for their research and teaching, abilities, it ranks easily among the best departments in the country. The Department was established in 1952, with about 40 postgraduate students. Since then the strength of the students has gone beyond 800. The Department offers M.A., M. Phil., and Ph.D. programmes and runs regular seminars and workshops. On the collaborative research front, the Department is committed to an inter‐disciplinary thematic thrust area of Democracy, Development and Peace, with generous support by UGC under its Departmental Special Assistance Programme. This has helped build on the traditional strengths in various sub‐fields as well as across disciplinary boundaries.

The Jawaharlal Nehru University was constituted under the Jawaharlal Nehru University Act 1966 (53 of 1966) of the Parliament of India and came into existence in 1969. The University has evolved policies and programmes which makes Jawaharlal Nehru University a distinct addition to the national resources in higher education rather than a mere quantitative expansion of facilities which already exist. The University has identified and is concentrating upon some major academic programmes, which are of relevance to national progress and development.

The basic academic units of the University are not single discipline departments but multi-disciplinary Schools of Studies. A School has been visualised as a community of scholars from disciplines which are linked with each other organically in terms of their subject-matter and methodology as well as in terms of problem areas. Some Schools are made up of a number of Centres which constitute the units operating within the broad framework of a School. A Centre has been defined as a community of scholars irrespective of their disciplines engaged in clearly identified inter-disciplinary programmes of research and teaching. Several Centres in these Schools have been declared by the UGC to be Centres of 'Excellence'.

The Centre for the Study of Law and Governance adopts a multidisciplinary approach to framing research and teaching on the complex relationship between law and governance. The study of governance, in its various forms and at different sites is central to several contemporary issues: reform of public institutions and public law; the creation and establishment of procedures and rules that lead to greater efficiency, transparency, and accountability; and the challenge of making governance more inclusive and participatory through the strengthening of democracy and civil society. The program’s interdisciplinary focus is distinctive from mainstream social science approaches to governance or law in its attempt to explore how practices of law and governance are embedded in political, economic, social and historical processes; how practices of governance are dispersed over various sites ranging from the government, bureaucracy, judiciary, community to the family; the socio-legal processes that deter or provide access to justice; and notions of governmentality, sovereignty and rights in specific politico-jural regimes. While the Centre’s academic programme produces scholarly research on law and governance, it also seeks to translate theory into practices of governance by initiating debate, sharing research and encouraging dialogue between the academia, government, civil society and NGOs at local, national and global levels. The ongoing research by the faculty and research students, a working paper series published by CSLG, an active seminar program and annual lectures by distinguished guests mark the other activities of the Centre. CSLG offers an MPhil/PhD program as well as a direct PhD program.

The Malaviya Centre for Peace Research (MCPR) was established in 1998 as an interdisciplinary centre at the Banaras Hindu University- one of the largest and most prestigious university systems in India. The MCPR has its own dedicated faculty and researchers to carry out its teaching and research programs and has emerged as a trend setter in the field of Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution. The MCPR offers a Masters Program in Conflict Management and Development (supported by the UN mandated University of Peace, Costa Rica and offers doctoral and post doctoral research. The research agenda at MCPR draws on an interdisciplinary analysis of generic causes and dynamic of conflict and trajectories of their resolution/transformation within and across South Asia. It strives to create an interface between research, analyses, and policy and values academic findings as well as experiential inputs in the area of conflict resolution and peacebuilding.

Born as a facilitating group in support of the peace movement in West Bengal, Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group (MCRG) is now known as the Calcutta Research Group (CRG).  The founders were a group of researchers, trade unionists, feminist thinkers and women’s rights campaigners, academics, journalists, and lawyers. Developing as a forum of mostly young public activists and socially committed researchers, CRG is now well-known for its research, dialogues, and advocacy work. It has carved out a niche for itself in the scholar-activist world for its policy studies on autonomy, human rights, women’s dignity, issues of forced displacement and migration, peace and conflict resolution, citizenship, borders and border-conflicts, and other themes relevant to democracy.  The emphasis that CRG places on the East and the Northeast in its research and dialogues has now resulted in a strong network of scholars, activists, and institutions in the region. With the kind of research outputs to its credit and the database accumulated over the years on the subject of its focus, it can truly claim itself to be a resource centre only of its kind in the east and the northeast. CRG has been functioning with enviable track record beyond the established system of higher education in the country. In Calcutta it is again the only voluntary association of eminent intellectuals and dynamic young researchers working on policies and issues of peace, conflict resolution, human rights, and democracy.  

The members of the CRG are acclaimed academics and professionals in their respective fields; they are noted researchers, teachers, journalists, communicators, publishers, editors, and women’s rights activists. While their individual work is well known in respective fields, their collective association on a voluntary basis in form of a research group has given CRG’s distinctive character. Among its ongoing projects the following projects may be mentioned: Eurasia-Net Project on Minority Rights; Research and Documentation on Right to Food; Development, Democracy, and Governance - Lessons and Policy Implications; Globalisation, Democracy, Gender and Citizenship, etc.

Society for Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA) is an International Centre for Learning and Promotion of Democratic Governance. Registered in 1982 under Society Registration Act, 1860 (Registration no. 12342), PRIA has since its inception embarked on a set of key initiatives focusing on participatory research, governance issues, citizen-centric development, capacity building, knowledge building and policy advocacy. With a combination of training, research and consultancy, it has grounded its work with conceptual rigor and understanding of social reality to command the strategic direction of interventions. PRIA works with diverse range of partners at local, national and global levels.

PRIA's professional expertise and practical insights in the following areas are being utilized by other civil society groups, NGOs, governments, donors, trade unions, private business and academic institutions around the world. Some of its key areas of work include participatory development methodologies, gender mainstreaming in institutions, women’s leadership and political empowerment, participatory governance in units of local self government at the rural and urban levels (panchayats and municipalities), adult education and lifelong learning and institutional building for the social sector. With field offices in several states across India (including Bihar, Chattisgarh and Jharkhand among others) PRIA’s vision is to deepen democracy by actively facilitating the participation of the marginalized sections of society in democratic governance.