CONIAS Risk Intelligence is part of Michael Bauer International GmbH since December 2019 and has its own offices in Heidelberg since the 1st of February 2020. CONIAS has its origins in the Institute of Political Science at the University of Heidelberg, specializing in conflict research.
Conflict research in Heidelberg started with a research project led by Prof. Frank R. Pfetsch between 1989 and 1991, resulting in the first conflict database called KOSIMO (Conflict Simulation Model). Afterwards, the student assistants of the project decided to continue their work and founded the Heidelberg Institute for International Conflict Research (HIIK) for that purpose. Since 1992, it annually publishes the Conflict Barometer, containing the political conflicts of the year.
Since 2001 KOSIMO had been revised due to technological progress and new content-related requirements, resulting in the KOSIMO-successor CONIS (Conflict Information System) under the direction of Dr. Nicolas Schwank in 2003. Within the following years, the CONIS database was constantly extended and updated in the context of research projects – since 2008 by the CONIS Research Institute. In early 2013, CONIS was renamed CONIAS (Conflict Information and Analysis System) due to trademark protection policies.
Since January 2013, the team of CONIAS Risk Intelligence is working to make the results of academic research accessible to non-academic sectors, in order to give our clients a cutting edge in dealing with the threats of political conflicts.