On November 6, University President Prof. Dr. Malte Drescher welcomed the Peace Academy Advisory Board, which had convened at the Frank-Loebschen Haus in Landau for its second meeting of the year. The members of the Advisory Board had set themselves an extensive agenda, but first the President provided information on the status and further scheduling of the restructuring process at RPTU. The President supplemented the program with exciting questions on the topic of "turning point" and "defense research": What consequences will a new focus on military-relevant areas in public budgets, industry and research have for a university like RPTU and its departments? Do geopolitical changes and the changing domestic political constellations raise new questions for peace and conflict research? The advisory board members from academia and civil society had no shortage of topics for discussion.

Afterwards, Dr. Melanie Müller (Berlin) was re-elected Chairperson and Christian Sterzing (Association of Friends and Sponsors of the Peace Academy, Landau) was re-elected Deputy Chairperson.

The Managing Director of the Peace Academy, Dr. Gregor Walter-Drop, first reported on the Peace Academy's diverse public and academic activities in the months since the last Advisory Board meeting in May 2025 and emphasized on the one hand the range of topics covered and on the other hand the increased presence of the Academy in Rhineland-Palatinate through events beyond Landau in Kaiserslautern, Mainz and Trier. New partner organizations have been found "locally" to increase the visibility of the work throughout the state, which also contributes to the further networking of the Academy. The Advisory Board was pleased to note that the Peace Academy's digital presence has also improved with the new website (still partly in progress) and that the Peace Academy blog and the "Fokus-Frieden" podcast, two formats that are attracting increasing interest. The Peace Academy has thus also fulfilled a wish expressed by the Advisory Board in last year's evaluation report.

Academic Director Prof. Dr. Janpeter Schilling presented the main features of the strategic reorientation of the content of the work: "Environmental and resource conflicts", "Peace education and conflicts about democracy" and "Conflict transformation and peace perspectives" form the three newly formulated focal points of the work following discussions in the Advisory Board and the team - with natural overlaps between the topics and also Rhineland-Palatinate references.

The Advisory Board also intensively discussed a completely different topic: the Academic Statutes and Rules of Procedure. In the context of the university's internal reorganization, a legally and institutionally secure structure is also to be created for the work of the Peace Academy as a "central academic institution" at RPTU. Initial drafts by the management of the Peace Academy also led to stimulating discussions and laid the foundation for further work on these texts before they are submitted to the relevant committees for approval in the course of 2026.

On November 6, University President Prof. Dr. Malte Drescher welcomed the Peace Academy Advisory Board, which had convened at the Frank-Loebschen Haus in Landau for its second meeting of the year. The members of the Advisory Board had set themselves an extensive agenda, but first the President provided information on the status and further scheduling of the restructuring process at RPTU. The President supplemented the program with exciting questions on the topic of "turning point" and "defense research": What consequences will a new focus on military-relevant areas in public budgets, industry and research have for a university like RPTU and its departments? Do geopolitical changes and the changing domestic political constellations raise new questions for peace and conflict research? The advisory board members from academia and civil society had no shortage of topics for discussion.

Afterwards, Dr. Melanie Müller (Berlin) was re-elected Chairperson and Christian Sterzing (Association of Friends and Sponsors of the Peace Academy, Landau) was re-elected Deputy Chairperson.

The Managing Director of the Peace Academy, Dr. Gregor Walter-Drop, first reported on the Peace Academy's diverse public and academic activities in the months since the last Advisory Board meeting in May 2025 and emphasized on the one hand the range of topics covered and on the other hand the increased presence of the Academy in Rhineland-Palatinate through events beyond Landau in Kaiserslautern, Mainz and Trier. New partner organizations have been found "locally" to increase the visibility of the work throughout the state, which also contributes to the further networking of the Academy. The Advisory Board was pleased to note that the Peace Academy's digital presence has also improved with the new website (still partly in progress) and that the Peace Academy blog and the "Fokus-Frieden" podcast, two formats that are attracting increasing interest. The Peace Academy has thus also fulfilled a wish expressed by the Advisory Board in last year's evaluation report.

Academic Director Prof. Dr. Janpeter Schilling presented the main features of the strategic reorientation of the content of the work: "Environmental and resource conflicts", "Peace education and conflicts about democracy" and "Conflict transformation and peace perspectives" form the three newly formulated focal points of the work following discussions in the Advisory Board and the team - with natural overlaps between the topics and also Rhineland-Palatinate references.

The Advisory Board also intensively discussed a completely different topic: the Academic Statutes and Rules of Procedure. In the context of the university's internal reorganization, a legally and institutionally secure structure is also to be created for the work of the Peace Academy as a "central academic institution" at RPTU. Initial drafts by the management of the Peace Academy also led to stimulating discussions and laid the foundation for further work on these texts before they are submitted to the relevant committees for approval in the course of 2026.