PeaceRep’s data-driven research commended at FCDO funding portfolio launch

PeaceRep’s data-driven research has been commended by the UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) during a relaunch of the FCDO’s funding portfolio.

In a launch event hosted at the British Academy in London on 18 May, FCDO introduced the new Global Research and Technology Development as a single, public-facing portfolio for research and development, streamlining existing research and innovation funding under a new brand. The department’s approach will span five thematic areas: climate, food and nature; geopolitics and humanitarian; growth, energy and infrastructure; human development; and technology, gender and inclusion.

As an FCDO-funded research programme, PeaceRep was invited to showcase at the event alongside fellow funded research partners. The PeaceRep team featured a suite of new data reports and key findings based on the PA-X Peace Agreements Database and the MEND Mediation Events and Negotiators Database as an example of the programme’s innovative digital approaches to PeaceTech, supporting adaptive management of peace and transition processes.

In his formal remarks during the event, FCDO Chief Scientific Adviser Professor Sir John Edmunds hailed PeaceRep as a prime example of the value of funding data-driven research to tackle shared global challenges.

“[PA-X is a] quite amazing piece of work looking at the details of every peace process, peace agreement, and ceasefire agreement across the entire world since 1990, from obscure conflicts in Papua New Guinea to the Northern Ireland peace agreement – every single one digitised, analysed, made available for use via computer models so that negotiators can go in pre-warned with a strategy that is more likely to succeed. Quite amazing that we’re at that stage of scientific development.”

PeaceRep’s Data Director, Dr Sanja Badanjak, attended the event and said,

Showcasing PeaceRep’s work at the launch of the FCDO’s Global Research and Technology Development portfolio has been an excellent opportunity to better understand how our work fits into and can contribute to the interdisciplinary approaches to solving some of the world’s most intractable problems. Research on conflict resolution is just one strand of these efforts, and we are glad to see how our work, combining data-driven insights with country expertise, develops the evidence base in Law and Social Sciences to support diplomatic efforts in navigating the complexity of contemporary peacemaking.

Further reading

PA-X Peace Agreements Database

MEND Mediation Events and Negotiators Database

Peace Agreements in 2025: Insights from the PA-X Database

Gender References in Peace Agreements in 2025: Insights from the PA-X Database

Mediation in 2025: Navigating overlapping conflict systems