MoUs & Collaborations

Since its inception, PIPS has been in a continuous process of developing formal and informal linkages and collaborations with research and academic institutions that have a common thematic focus. The objective has been to share mutual experiences, enhance the empirical and objective knowledge base of the issues related to conflict, insecurity and violence, etc., and to explore viable policy options for achieving peace and preventing/de-escalating conflicts in Pakistan and the wider region. Another underlying objective of this exercise has been to strengthen the institutional capacity at PIPS.
The Institute has entered into collaborations and signed memoranda of understanding with various organisations and institutions in one or more of the following areas.

• Joint publications;
• Capacity building initiatives and mutual internships;
• Exchange of scholars and fellowships;
• Research collaborations;
• Holding of joint events such as conferences and seminars, etc.;
• Exchange of periodic and other publications; and
• Regular consultations with organisations and institutions with a common thematic focus in order to share experiences on research, policy advocacy and other programmatic areas.

Some of the key institutional collaborations that PIPS has been part of are listed below:

• In 2006, PIPS became a member of the Council of Asian Terrorism Research (CATR), a consortium of academic and research institutions which was renamed as the Council for Asian Transnational Threat Research in 2011.

• PIPS and a Beijing-based research centre, the Ethnic Minority Groups Development Research Institute of Research Development Center (EMGDRI-RDC), signed a memorandum of understanding in 2006 to start a scholars’ exchange programme and joint research projects on South and Central Asia.

• In the same year, PIPS signed another memorandum of understanding with the International Center for Political Violence and Terrorism Research (ICPVTR), a specialised centre of the Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, for a scholars’ exchange program.

• In October 2007, PIPS entered into collaboration with the Department of Political Science at Lund University, Sweden. The department’s Asian Studies Programme is headed by Catrina Kinnvall, an experienced researcher working on several projects related to India, Pakistan and China, who leads the university’s joint research programmes with PIPS.

• PIPS became an affiliate institution of the International Centre for the Study of Radicalization and Political Violence (ICSR) at King’s College, London, in June 2009. The collaboration aimed to facilitate participation in collaborative research programmes, exchange of scholars, cross-participation in events and conferences, and sharing of knowledge and expertise.

• PIPS and Observatório Político—or Political Observatory—a Portuguese non-profit independent scientific research centre—entered into a memorandum of understanding in the last quarter of 2011 with a view to establish an institutional collaboration to develop a mechanism of publication exchange and create a program exchange vehicle between the two organizations.

• In 2011, PIPS became a member of the International Practitioner Network (IPN) of casualty recording organizations—a network facilitated and supported by everycasualty programme at Oxford Research Group. The network connects the organizations working to collect, record, and properly memorialize the individual victims of armed violence around the world.