IFS at the CIRCLE Kick-off Meeting in Athens

The project Creative Interfaith and Restorative Peacebuilding in Artful Learning Spaces and Places (CIRCLE) has officially kicked off with a meeting of the project partners in Athens on October 12–13, 2026. Hosted and coordinated by the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, the meeting brought together the project partners to establish a shared foundation for the project’s work ahead. 
CIRCLE is a Horizon Europe funded research and practice project involving 15 partner organisations from 13 European countries. The project examines how cultural and religious conflicts are shaped not only at political and military levels, but also through narratives, emotions, identities, and symbols. It explores the potential of cultural diplomacy and arts-based learning to foster dialogue, mutual understanding, and reconciliation in polarised societies. Under the scientific leadership of Prof. Dr. Nele McElvany, the IFS is responsible for evaluating the project’s interventions. A key component is the development of an extended evaluation framework led by Dr. Pascal Alscher. The framework will assess not only psychological and socio-behavioural effects, but also cultural contexts and the mechanisms underlying processes of change. A digital, decentralised real-time monitoring system will support continuous data collection across the project’s intervention sites.
The meeting focused first on aligning the partners around the project vision and key organisational aspects. Discussions covered the Grant and Consortium Agreements, project governance, financial and ethical requirements, data management, the work package architecture, and the communication framework.
In parallel planning sessions, the partners worked together on the implementation of the individual work packages and identified dependencies between them. A particular focus was placed on defining the critical path for the first six months of the project and establishing a joint action plan for the partners.
The kick-off meeting thus marked an important first step in bringing the CIRCLE partners together and setting the course for the project’s upcoming activities.

Find further information about CIRCLE on the project page.