Generations for Peace (GFP) extended its collaboration with Georgetown University on Wednesday, the International Day of Peace. The international NGO’s founder and chairman, HRH Prince Feisal, signed an a memorandum of understanding guaranteeing the offer of four academic awards within the Washington, DC institution’s conflict resolution programme to the end of 2014, according to a GFP statement. The collaboration is aimed at connecting academics with practitioners, evaluating and monitoring real life peace through sport initiatives and helping increase their impact and sustainability in conflict zones around the world. GFP is extending its support for the King Abdullah Generations for Peace Research Fellowship; the Generations for Peace Scholarship for Graduate Studies; and two summer field research grants, the Generations for Peace Field Research Awards, the statement said. Prince Feisal emphasised that the agreement combines both organisations’ strengths and promises to continue stimulating tangible, sustainable change. “Georgetown University has a deserved reputation for commitment to peace, social justice and ethics. Together we are able to provide the tools and resources that allow Generations for Peace to continue making an impact on the ground by connecting top-quality academic research with cutting-edge practice on the ground. Extending our collaboration will ensure that continues.” The extension builds on the success of the initial collaboration, which began in 2010, according to the statement. “Our collaboration with Generations For Peace has made a profound and positive impact within Georgetown University’s conflict resolution master’s programme, enabling our faculty and students to engage some of the most pressing issues in the field more deeply. We are proud of the work already carried out by our fellowship and scholarship holders and our summer field research grant students, and the way in which their efforts have clearly demonstrated the demand for more learning and more research in the field,” the statement quoted Georgetown University President John J. DeGioia as saying. “Today’s extension will enable us to build on the work already done, to more fully live out Georgetown’s commitment to service and social justice, and to provide an important contribution to the sport for peace and development community,” he added. Focusing on the practical impact of the research that the awards support, HRH Princess Sarah Al Feisal, president of Generations for Peace, said: “We want to help aspiring change makers learn the theory that will make the work they do in conflict zones much more effective and sustainable.” “For that reason, initiatives like the one we are extending today with Georgetown University, are essential because they connect theory and practice to guide learning and improvements to programmes to enhance their impact.” For all four awards, candidates will be selected through a competitive process with the scholarship awarded by a committee at the university.