The interdisciplinary research network Prisma Ukraïna - Research Network Eastern Europe is supported by researchers at universities and scientific institutions in Berlin and Brandenburg and continues the work of the Berlin-Brandenburg Ukraine Initiative (BBUI), founded in 2014 by Prof. Dr Andrii Portnov (Viadrina Center for Polish and Ukrainian Studies, Chair of Entangled History of Ukraine at the European University Viadrina (Frankfurt/Oder)). Prisma Ukraïna is both programme and perspective. Ukraine is the focus of interest as an object of research, while at the same time acts as a "prism" to open up transregional perspectives.

Prisma Ukraïna: War, Migration, Memory is a research group that investigates the transformative effects of war, displacement and flight on history, memory and sense of belonging. The research group employs the example of Ukraine to investigate questions pertaining to the evolving European historical landscape and the resilience of pluralistic societies. The project Prisma Ukraïna: War, Migration, Memory is based on an idea by Viktoriya Sereda, who led the project in 2022/2023 and continues to be a member and adviser to the research group.

Since 2022, Prisma Ukraïna: War, Migration, Memory has been exploring the model of a decentralised research group, whose collaboration is supported by project-accompanying science communication and administration at the Forum. 

The research group currently consists of 10 Ukrainian researchers in Ukraine and at their places of refuge in Germany and Switzerland. Over the course of the project, they have developed topics and forms of joint work in virtual and hybrid meetings. The researchers document the transformation of memory through interviews and collections of material, work on their own research projects, present them for discussion in seminars and discuss common questions with colleagues from other regions.

Prisma Ukraïna - Research Network Eastern Europe was established with financial support from the State of Berlin. In the 2022-2023 period, the complementary projects War, Migration, Memory and Science Communication and Networks were funded by the Senate Department for Science, Health and Long-Term Care of the State of Berlin. During this period, the ZEIT STIFTUNG BUCERIUS and the Marga und Kurt Möllgaard-Stiftung funded sur-place or non-resident fellowships for researchers affected by the war in Ukraine.

Since 2024, the Gerda Henkel Foundation supports the research group Prisma Ukraïna: War, Migration, Memory through “sur-place” fellowships in Ukraine and residence fellowships in Germany and Switzerland, and provides additional funding for academic events and science communication. The Berlin Senate Department for Higher Education and Research, Health, and Long-Term Care provides personnel funds for the administrative and science communication support of the research group at the Forum.