ifa offers research-based knowledge at the interface of culture and foreign policy. In its Forum for International Cultural Relations, it discusses and documents international cultural relations against the backdrop of global structural change. The aim is to provide academic support for foreign cultural policy and to develop new concepts at the interface of culture, politics and the media. This benefits think tanks, people who are politically active, academics, librarians and other interested parties.
The focus is on practice-orientated research and advice, documentation and information, international networking, promoting young talent, and forums for foreign cultural policy discussion.
Focal areas of the cultural policy dialogue formats are current social issues, global challenges and historical-political and (inter)cultural education. Practitioners, academics and politicians around the world exchange ideas on the basis of research and transcultural knowledge in the Lecture Programme of the German Federal Government, the talks format 'Totally Glocally', and the Visitors Programme of the Federal Republic of Germany.
ifa networks international and national institutions to promote the exchange of knowledge and cultural cooperation world-wide. These academic and cultural-policy networks are the International Cultural Relations Research Alliance (ICRRA), the Academic Council on Culture and Foreign Policy, the European Union National Institutes for Culture (EUNIC) and the Foundation Euro-Mediterranean Knowledge Space (WEM).
