The Senate of the Leibniz Association, the network of non-university institutes of scientific excellence, issued an outstanding certificate for the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt, Germany's largest peace research institute based in Frankfurt am Main. The external reviewers acknowledge the institute’s highly successful research work and distinguished political consulting: "With its range of tasks and achievements, PRIF occupies a central position in the field of peace and conflict research in Germany."
PRIF "very successfully" examines, according to its research assignment, the causes of conflicts and carries out research into the conditions necessary for peace. "In doing so, fundamental research is convincingly combined with practice-orientation, by means of comprehensive consulting services and active media relations, the findings are systematically transferred into politics, society and economy. With its expertise on a wide range of topics in the field of peace and conflict research, PRIF is assigned a prominent position in science policy", the reviewers continue.
The institute "embarks on a very good strategy to continuously develop a research programme." The current research programme "Just Peace Governance" focuses justice-related issues in international politics "that have been dealt with too little in research up to this point." The work of PRIF's research departments were rated by the experts between "good to very good" and "excellent".
The report especially approves that PRIF’s "high methodological competence" has been extended to an ethnological competence by establishing a new research group. Achievements in publications were appreciated as well: "Researchers at PRIF publish on a high level." The evaluation report praises the "increased number of publications in renowned, internationally received journals since the last evaluation".
As further strengths the report names, among other things, the cooperation with Goethe University Frankfurt am Main and the Technical University Darmstadt, the supervision of PhD students, the promotion of women and the quality management.
The Senate of the Leibniz Association recommends that both the German federal government and the state of Hesse continue their joint funding for PRIF.
"We are very proud of this eminently positive result and happy to remain a member of the Leibniz Association, as a part of which we feel very comfortable", says Professor Dr Harald Müller, director of PRIF. "We are especially pleased that we could further improve our work since the last evaluation and enhance our international visibility in science and political consulting. This assessment invigorates us and the reviewers' recomendations stimulate us to improve even more during the upcoming seven years."
PRIF has been a member of the Leibniz Association since 2009. Institutes of the Leibniz Associations are evaluated every seven years by independent experts.
The Senate’s statement on PRIF including annex (German only)