PRIO has recently secured several external research grants, highlighting strong confidence in the Institute’s research and its relevance to pressing global challenges. The new funding supports five distinct projects addressing displacement, Nordic security, societal preparedness, the human consequences of the war in Ukraine, innovative approaches to trauma and wellbeing, and PRIO’s Gender Peace and Security Centre.
Refugees and international bargaining
PRIO Research Professor Jørgen Jensehaugen has received funding from the Research Council of Norway for a project titled “Leveraging protracted refugee situations: comparing how Lebanon and Turkey have responded to Syrian displacement.” The project examines how host states use large refugee populations as political and economic leverage in negotiations with international donors, particularly as international aid declines and pressures for returns increase. By comparing Lebanon and Turkey, two of the states hosting the largest number of refugees globally, the research sheds new light on power dynamics and responsibility-sharing in protracted displacement.
Nordic security under pressure
In a separate funding success, PRIO Senior Researcher Stine Bergersen will lead PRIO’s contribution to the NordForsk-funded project “Resilience or rupture? The Nordic security community in an age of antagonistic threats.” The project analyses how Nordic security actors respond to antagonistic threats such as disinformation, and whether shared responses continue to sustain Nordic security cooperation under increasing strain.
The human consequences of the war in Ukraine
PRIO has received new funding from the Swedish research foundation Östersjöstiftelsen for HUMAN-UKR, a five-year interdisciplinary project co-led by Henrikas Bartusevičius, Research Professor at PRIO. The project brings together scholars from Norway, Sweden and Ukraine to study how the war affects ordinary people’s lives.
HUMAN-UKR focuses on cooperation, democratic support, wellbeing, misinformation, veterans’ reintegration, and long-term recovery and preparedness. Using large-scale surveys, interviews, experiments, economic games and spatial data, the project aims to generate knowledge that supports resilience in Ukraine and neighbouring regions.
Societal preparedness and willingness to defend the state
PRIO has received new funding from the Norwegian Ministry of Defence for a project led by Research Director Marianne Dahl titled “Societal preparedness in the face of war: predicting military and civilian responses to a war scenario”. The project examines how trust, legitimacy and threat perceptions shape civilians’ and conscripts’ willingness to defend the state, generating policy-relevant knowledge to support Norway’s total defence and long-term security planning. Researchers Eirin Haugseth (PRIO), Andreas Kotsadam (The Frisch Centre) and Torbjørn Hansson (FFI) are part of the project, and Forsvarets Forskningsintitutt (FFI) is a partner.
Gender, Peace and Security
PRIO’s Centre on Gender, Peace and Security has secured a new multi-year funding agreement with the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, reaffirming Norway’s long-term commitment to the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda. Since 2015, the Centre’s research and training have helped shape Norwegian WPS policy and advance gender perspectives in peace processes. The renewed funding will further strengthen the Centre’s role as a hub for research-based policy development on gender, peace and conflict. Together, these new projects demonstrate PRIO’s continued success in attracting competitive external support and advancing interdisciplinary, policy-relevant research on conflict, security and human resilience.
