BMFTR Status Conference on Peace and Conflict Studies

TraCe presents highlights of knowledge transfer and plans for the future in Bonn

Above the heads of the audience, at the other end of the room, you can see a stage where four people are sitting and discussing. Behind them, a large screen has been lowered onto the wall, showing a PowerPoint presentation related to the plenary discussion.

On No­vember 4 and 5, 2025, TraCe took part in the status con­ference organized by the Federal Minis­try for Research, Tech­nology and Space (BMFTR) in Bonn. The con­ference brought together pro­jects funded by the BMFTR's two fun­ding lines “Streng­thening and Further De­veloping Peace and Conflict Re­search” and “Junior Re­search Groups in Natural and Tech­nical Sciences for Peace and Con­flict Research with a Fo­cus on Arms Control” – for inter­disciplinary exchange.

Both fun­ding lines are based on the recommen­dations for peace and conflict re­search issued by the German Coun­cil of Science and Hu­manities in 2019. Following these recommen­dations, the projects were invited to re­port on and evaluate how far the structural recommen­dations had been implemen­ted and to identify remai­ning funding needs. 

Annika Poppe and Tina Cramer stand in front of the stage and present TraCe at the status conference.

After an opening and wel­come address by Ulrich Schar­lack (BMFTR), the conference began with a panel dis­cussion on current conflict dyna­mics and peace­building efforts featuring Nathan Wood (Hamburg University of Tech­nology), Conrad Schetter (Bonn Inter­national Centre for Conflict Studies), and Sabine von Löwis (Centre for East Euro­pean and Inter­national Studies), mo­derated by Nadia Klein (DLR).

In the late after­noon, eight projects presen­ted their results in cross-cutting sessions and provi­ded insights into future re­search and funding needs. The TraCe presen­tation was given by the coordi­nation team, Annika Elena Poppe and Tina Cramer. Together, they presen­ted TraCe’s struc­ture, selected know­ledge transfer high­lights, as well as plans for the future.

On the second day, seven addi­tional projects shared their in­terim findings before partici­pants engaged in a net­working “speed dating” session, offering oppor­tunities for infor­mal, in-depth conver­sations. The conference con­cluded with a plenary dis­cussion on structural issues in peace and conflict re­search, featuring key­note state­ments by Thomas Held (German Foun­dation for Peace Research) and Christina Nor­wig (BMFTR), followed by an open dis­cussion.

In the center of the picture is a table covered with glasses, behind which several pinboards are set up. The posters of the presented projects are pinned to them.

In addition to Annika Elena Poppe and Tina Cramer, Susanne Buckley-Zistel, Thorsten Bon­acker, Mariel Reiss, Verena Lasso Mena, Markus Le­derer, Thilo Ma­rauhn, Jonas Wolff, and Larissa-Diana Fuhr­mann from TraCe also took part in the event. The con­ference provided an oppor­tunity for net­working and enabled a fruitful ex­change between the projects. The impor­tance of further fun­ding oppor­tunities in order not to jeo­pardize the success­fully established struc­tures was particularly empha­sized .