On May 5, 2025, the new Peace Academy Advisory Board met for its constituent meeting. University President Prof. Dr. Malte Drescher welcomed the eight members of the advisory board appointed in December, half of whom are representatives from academia and half from civil society organizations involved in peace policy. President Drescher began by providing an insight into the status of the university's ongoing integration process and outlined the challenges that still lie ahead for the university's internal constitution. He emphasized the importance and role of the Peace Academy as a central academic institution of the university. The Managing Director of the Peace Academy, Dr. Gregor Walter-Drop, and the Academic Director, Prof. Dr. Janpeter Schilling, then reported on the Academy's diverse activities. This included the statement that an increase in the budget by the state parliament was seen as a special recognition of the Academy's work. The establishment of the office of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Friedens- und Konfliktforschung e.V. (an association of all German-speaking researchers in this field) and the holding of the corresponding annual congress in Landau in March of this year also marks a supra-regional gain in reputation in terms of higher education and research policy. The broad spectrum of the many public and specialist events reported on provided a good basis not only for questions and critical exchange, but also led into another focus of the (hybrid) meeting: the presentation of the Academy's considerations on the strategic reorientation of the Peace Academy. With a focus on research into land and resource conflicts, the Academy has a certain unique selling point in the field of peace and conflict research institutions, which - despite the limitations of financial and human resources - should of course be maintained.

Another important pillar of the work will be peace education and peace pedagogy. The visibility of the Academy's work in the region is to be increased, particularly by giving greater consideration to topics relevant to peace policy in Rhineland-Palatinate. The debate about priorities, whether in research or in publicly negotiated topics, will certainly continue to accompany the advisory activities of the new Advisory Board in the future. The specific challenge for the Academy, namely to be an interface between peace and conflict research and civil society peace engagement and to promote peace policy discourse, has lost none of its topicality.

Further information about the Advisory Board can be found here.

On May 5, 2025, the new Peace Academy Advisory Board met for its constituent meeting. University President Prof. Dr. Malte Drescher welcomed the eight members of the advisory board appointed in December, half of whom are representatives from academia and half from civil society organizations involved in peace policy. President Drescher began by providing an insight into the status of the university's ongoing integration process and outlined the challenges that still lie ahead for the university's internal constitution. He emphasized the importance and role of the Peace Academy as a central academic institution of the university. The Managing Director of the Peace Academy, Dr. Gregor Walter-Drop, and the Academic Director, Prof. Dr. Janpeter Schilling, then reported on the Academy's diverse activities. This included the statement that an increase in the budget by the state parliament was seen as a special recognition of the Academy's work. The establishment of the office of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Friedens- und Konfliktforschung e.V. (an association of all German-speaking researchers in this field) and the holding of the corresponding annual congress in Landau in March of this year also marks a supra-regional gain in reputation in terms of higher education and research policy. The broad spectrum of the many public and specialist events reported on provided a good basis not only for questions and critical exchange, but also led into another focus of the (hybrid) meeting: the presentation of the Academy's considerations on the strategic reorientation of the Peace Academy. With a focus on research into land and resource conflicts, the Academy has a certain unique selling point in the field of peace and conflict research institutions, which - despite the limitations of financial and human resources - should of course be maintained.

Another important pillar of the work will be peace education and peace pedagogy. The visibility of the Academy's work in the region is to be increased, particularly by giving greater consideration to topics relevant to peace policy in Rhineland-Palatinate. The debate about priorities, whether in research or in publicly negotiated topics, will certainly continue to accompany the advisory activities of the new Advisory Board in the future. The specific challenge for the Academy, namely to be an interface between peace and conflict research and civil society peace engagement and to promote peace policy discourse, has lost none of its topicality.

Further information about the Advisory Board can be found here.