The National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Otago is attracting growing overseas attention, and has also gained more than $1.5 million in contestable funding since 2009.
An international social impact report, written by centre Research Fellow Dr James McIlraith and released last week, has attracted considerable media coverage in Australia and Papua New Guinea (PNG).
The report focused on the influence of a multibillion-dollar liquefied natural gas (LNG) project, which is being built in the Hela region of PNG.
Natural gas will be extracted from the region and sent to the coast for liquefaction, before being exported. Construction began in 2010, and is due to end in 2014.
The Otago national centre also last week secured a $600,000 shared grant from Swedish authorities, involving joint research with the University of Uppsala, Sweden, into conflict within "micro-states" in Melanesia and Polynesia.
That has lifted contestable funding gained by the centre to more than $1.5 million in the past three years.
Centre director Prof Kevin Clements said the centre had already built a "really good international profile" since it was established in 2009 and was viewed as a "relatively neutral" party in its PNG work.
The LNG project was the biggest industry about which the centre had written a report.
The report highlighted the LNG industry's achievements in addressing social change but warned important issues, including rising community tensions, needed to be addressed.
The report is a joint research project conducted by Oxfam, the Otago centre, and several non-governmental organisations.
