The peace process in Colombia between the government of Juan Manuel Santos and the FARC guerrilla, is, in spite of difficulties and uncertainties, one of the few bright lights in the contemporary world riddled in warfare. To support the peace process through education, research and consulting, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) since late 2016 has, along with the German Foreign Affairs Ministry, financed the construction of a German-Colombian Peace Institute / Instituto Colombo-Alemán para la Paz (CAPAZ) in Bogotá.  The goal of this institute is to build a wide academic network within Colombia and between Colombia and Germany, on key issues in peace. There are also several Colombian universities involved, particularly the ones in regions that were more affected by the conflict. This project is undertaken by a consortium made up of German and Colombian higher education and research institutions.

On the German side, the institutions involved are the FU Berlin,  the HSFK,  the Justus Liebig-Universität Gießen (consortium leader), the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, as well as the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg (associated member). The Colombian partners are united by the Alianza Universitaria por la Paz (University Peace Alliance),  made up by Universidad Nacional, the Universidad de los Andes, the Universidad del Rosario, the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana and the Universidad Externado de Colombia.

A period of ten years is considered for the construction of the Institute, comprised of the actual phase of development (2016-2019), followed by an institutionalization (2019-2023)  and a consolidation phase (2023-2026).

 The FU Berlin, through the Latin American Institute, is contributing to this endeavor through these projects:

• Memory and historical consciousness in school and television in Colombia
• Global change – local conflicts? Land conflicts in Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa, in the context of interdependent transformation processes (GLOCON)
• A focus on ethnicity in implementing the peace accords in Colombia: Tensions and inequalities.

• The political processes of the organization of biodiversity in Colombia - The case of Bogotá and Barranquilla

• Why are corporate elites interconnected by cohesive networks in some countries, and not in others? Cross-national and transnational analysis of corporate elite networks in Latin America
• trAndeS -  Postgraduate Program in Sustainable Development and Social Inequalities in the Andean region