On the occasion of the 45th anniversary of the United Nations University for Peace, celebrated in Rome on 14 March 2026, Don Andrea Ciucci, Secretary General of the RenAIssance Foundation and the Pontifical Academy for Life, presented the Memorandum of Understanding between the RenAIssance Foundation and UPEACE, opening up new prospects for collaboration on issues of peace, the ethics of artificial intelligence, and intercultural and interreligious dialogue.
The meeting opened with video greetings from Rector Francisco Rojas Aravena; this was followed by speeches from Roberto Savio, UPEACE’s representative in Italy, Sergio Bellucci, Academic Director, Professor Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University, and Don Andrea Ciucci, alongside other figures from the political and intellectual spheres.
The Memorandum was drafted to promote structured academic cooperation between the two institutions. Specifically, the agreement involves the development of joint activities in the fields of postgraduate education, seminars and conferences, the exchange of information and expertise, the mobility of researchers, lecturers and students, as well as the production of joint publications. Individual programmes will be defined on a case-by-case basis through specific operational addenda.
In his address, Father Andrea Ciucci highlighted the increasingly closer link between peacebuilding and technological transformation: “Peace is not solely determined in the traditional arenas of diplomacy, politics or law,” he stated. “It is also shaped by the way in which we are building the technological world in which we live.”
This awareness also underpins the value of the work carried out by the Rome Call for AI Ethics, understood not merely as a statement of principles, but as a concrete method of dialogue between different worlds. In his speech, Father Andrea emphasised that, in the face of technologies as powerful and transformative as artificial intelligence, “we need places where different worlds can truly engage with one another: institutions, universities, religious communities, and technology companies”.
In this context, the agreement with UPEACE represents a concrete step towards creating a shared space for reflection and training between people working for peace and those committed to bringing ethical, anthropological and interfaith perspectives to the debate on artificial intelligence. During the meeting, Fr Ciucci also announced the launch of a master’s programme dedicated to the relationship between peace, artificial intelligence, ethics, and intercultural and interreligious dialogue, designed to train individuals capable of combining technical expertise, ethical discernment, cultural sensitivity and institutional responsibility.
The Memorandum, signed by the RenAIssance Foundation and the University for Peace, came into force on 1 February 2026 and will run for three years. It represents an important step in consolidating a joint effort that views peace as an educational, cultural and institutional challenge in the age of emerging technologies.
