My Department has not commissioned any research through the North South Ministerial Council, Shared Island Initiative or other all-island arrangements since its establishment in 2011. My Department is co-sponsor, together with the Department of Finance in Northern Ireland, of the Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB), a North South Implementation Body established under the Good Friday Agreement to advise on and manage EU co-funded cross-border PEACE and INTERREG programmes. In its capacity as Managing Authority for these programmes, SEUPB from time to time commissions research for the purposes of informing the development and evaluation of the PEACE and INTERREG programmes, most recently for the PEACEPLUS programme for the 2021-2027 period.
The SEUPB website, at www.seupb.eu, provides information on the PEACEPLUS programme as well as evaluations on the implementation and impact of previous programmes. In addition, the SEUPB recently launched the Peace Programmes Learning Platform to act as a unique living archive for key records relating to present and past iterations of the EU programmes it manages. The Platform is accessible at www.peaceplatform.seupb.eu/en/.
