Implementation period: 2025–2026

Host Institution: Borys Grinchenko Kyiv Metropolitan University

Supporting Organizations: Supported and funded by the Center for Governance and Culture in Europe (GCE) and the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland.

The project is designed to achieve the following strategic goals:

- to consolidate scholars from across the Black Sea region to facilitate the exchange of expertise regarding governance, culture, and societal transformations within the area;

- to investigate primary challenges and threats to the region's sustainable development, thereby stimulating academic discourse and expert deliberations on crisis-management strategies and the planning of future case studies and research initiatives;

- to broaden the horizons of international cooperation by engaging new global partners and fostering synergy between diverse academic networks.

Research focus

The international research team will concentrate on the Black Sea region through the lens of historical and contemporary global contexts.

Key areas of inquiry include:

Exogenous and endogenous factors of (in)stability within the region;

Matters of peacebuilding, conflict resolution, and conflict transformation;

The intricate intertwining of national identities, cultures, and religions.

Final phase: Summer School

The project will culminate in a week-long International Summer School in June 2026, hosted by the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities at Borys Grinchenko Kyiv Metropolitan University.

Target Audience: domestic and international scholars, representatives of higher education institutions from the Black Sea region, undergraduate and postgraduate students, and other relevant stakeholders.

Project coordinator: Tetiana Kostiuk, Doctor of Science in Public Administration, Associate Professor, and Professor of the Department of Political Science and Sociology.