Nils Petter’s Prize

At a big celebration of Norwegian Research in Oslo Concert Hall on 14 October, Nils Petter was given a prestigious award. The Møbius prize – the Norwegian Research Council’s award for excellence in research – was a deeply deserved honour to Nils Petter for his pivotal role in the development of peace research. Equally, it is a recognition of his key part in the development of PRIO, today widely regarded as one of the world’s primary research milieu’s in our domain, as I am always reminded when I travel abroad. Many PRIO’ites were present when the prize was awarded (some were lured to be there, others were conditionally informed after all other strategies had failed). Many of us – myself included – were not. I am therefore looking forward to the chance to celebrate him in our in-house celebration on Wednesday this week. Congratulations, Nils Petter!

The Norwegian media is weak at covering research and higher education. Morgenbladet is an exception. I was therefore glad to hear that they wanted to interview Nils Petter on the occasion of the Møbius award. I was similarly disappointed when I picked up Friday’s newspaper to see that what was a good interview with Nils Petter was overshadowed by a side-article, as well as a shared headline and a front page teaser, all of which highlighted the development of PRIO from a critical to an obedient institution. While I regret that Nils Petter’s prize was overshadowed by this claim, I also take this as an invitation to an important principled debate about funding, independence and the role of peace research. I have already drafted my response, which I expect to see in Morgenbladet next Friday.