Transformations of political violence, non-military practices of African actors, success and effectiveness of international biological and chemical weapons disarmament regimes, and the further development of verification processes – since 2022, four interdisciplinary collaborative projects led by PRIF have been researching these topics as part of the funding line “Strengthening and further development of peace and conflict research.” The German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR) has now evaluated all four projects positively and approved their continued funding: Starting in April 2026, the joint projects “African Non-military Conflict Intervention Practices” (ANCIP), “CBWNet – Compliance with and Enforcement of Norms against Chemical and Biological Weapons,” the Research Center “Transformations of Political Violence” (TraCe), and “Verification in a Complex and Unpredictable World: Social, Political and Technical Processes” (VeSPoTec) will continue their work for another two years.
The joint project, “African Non-military Conflict Intervention Practices” (ANCIP) – led by Antonia Witt at PRIF – focuses on the intervention practices of African actors. The project aims to establish an online-based register of non-military interventions by the African Union (AU) and other subregional organizations and to reconstruct non-military intervention practices and routines of selected African actors. ANCIP combines empirical basic research with theory building and strategic policy advice. Researchers at the universities of Leipzig and Duisburg-Essen, and at PRIF, are working closely with a network of international partners in Europe and Africa. In the next funding phase, PRIF will take over project coordination.
How can international standards against chemical and biological weapons be strengthened? The joint project, “CBWNet – Compliance with and Enforcement of Norms against Chemical and Biological Weapons,” unites political science and international law researchers from the Berlin office of the IFSH, Justus Liebig University Giessen, the Weizsäcker Center in Hamburg, and PRIF. Together, they analyze the robustness of existing norms. Over the next two years, the consortium, led by Una Jakob at PRIF, will examine compliance with and enforcement of the norms against chemical and biological weapons more closely. Based on these findings, the project will develop policy options and expand international networking and policy implementation.
The Research Center “Transformations of Political Violence” (TraCe) brings together four universities in Hesse – Philipps University of Marburg, Justus Liebig University Giessen, Goethe University Frankfurt, and Technical University Darmstadt – along with PRIF, which oversees coordination and knowledge transfer. TraCe brings together various disciplines and methodological approaches to analyze forms of violence, institutional frameworks and patterns of interpretation, with the aim of identifying strategies for containing violence. Against the backdrop of current political developments, TraCe has identified new cross-cutting themes to focus on in the coming funding phase: violence against activists, the hybridization of warfare, and questions of justice and justification. Over the next two years, TraCe will examine these issues in the context of political, ecological, digital, and urban transformation processes and introduce them into public debates through its transfer activities.
How can we reliably verify that countries are complying with their nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation obligations? That is, how can we ensure that they are using nuclear material exclusively for peaceful purposes? The VeSPoTec project addresses this question. Participants include RWTH Aachen University, Forschungszentrum Jülich, and the University of Duisburg-Essen. Starting in the second funding phase, PRIF (formerly TU Darmstadt) will also participate under the direction of Malte Göttsche. Against the backdrop of an increasingly tense global situation, in which formal arms control agreements between the US and Russia are impossible in the foreseeable future, all nuclear-weapon states are modernizing their arsenals, and access to information on nuclear facilities is becoming more difficult, VeSPoTec brings together perspectives from the natural sciences, social sciences, and cultural studies to strengthen and advance knowledge about verification. In the new funding phase, VeSPoTec intends to expand its transfer activities further. First, technological advances (for example in data and simulation sciences) will be used specifically for verification processes. At the same time, the project will contribute this knowledge to international policy advice and share it with young scientists through further training measures.