About the project
The Research Council of Norway funded Peace Science Infrastructure-project represents one of the most ambitious infrastructure investments ever within social science in Norway. The project is a collaboration between PRIO, Uppsala University, SIPRI and University of Oslo.
It will allow social scientists throughout Norway and around the globe to make use of new and unexplored data sources to study in fine-grain detail the dynamics of political processes. The infrastructure developed is broadly applicable to any area of research that attempts to understand the behavior of political actors.
To date, the most widely used datasets in social science register information at the country-year level of analysis. This is problematic. Country-year analysis fails to account for local effects and dynamics. Misidentification also occurs, such as inferring that diamonds fuel armed conflict in Russia because the same sovereign state has both significant diamond deposits (in Siberia) and a civil war (Chechnya). Often, theory is at the micro-level, thus introducing a disturbing gap between micro-level theories and macro-level analysis
Objectives
To ensure broad usage of the infrastructure, PSI is organized around two research groups: 1) the Conflict Patterns group at PRIO and 2) the Comparative Institutions and Regimes group at the Department of Political Science (University of Oslo).
PSI will develop: 1) A common ID framework for non-state actors and entities at various geographic scales; 2) Automated machine-coding and machine-learning tools to accurately record social and political events compatible with these entities and actors; 3) A framework for implementing PSI in third-party settings.
Financing
PSI is funded by the Research Council of Norway under Project No.: 322425.