The EU-funded INNOVATE project aims to bring about significant changes in the nature and impact of migration research on policy. This is achieved through a series of actions that will develop, test, apply, and communicate process innovations. These innovations are designed around the needs and interests of researchers, policy-makers, and other stakeholders, including migrants, involved in migration issues at various governance levels from local to international. 

This 38-month EU-funded project is implemented in a consortium led by the European University Institute, with the IRC represented by IRC Italia. The project aims to push for policymaking based on facts and evidence, rather than on beliefs and ideologies.

The main role of the IRC consists in advocating for the rights of children in migration in Greece, Italy, and Serbia, using research and the participation of those most affected by migration policies.

The project established the Migration Research to Policy Co-Lab, which has both a physical and virtual presence. This Co-Lab includes a Research Exchange, Engagement Hub, and Training Facility.

Main objectives

The main objectives of the project are to:

  1. establish the Migration Research to Policy Co-Lab as a primary resource that promotes the use of research evidence in both virtual and physical formats to support policymaking.
  2. develop coordination and support actions based on principles of co-creation that are centered around migrants.
  3. create opportunities for mutual learning between researchers, policy-makers, citizens, and individuals with lived migration experiences.
  4. engage with strategic stakeholders at all stages to increase overall engagement throughout the project's duration.
  5. design process innovation actions that promote the use and appreciation of knowledge and facilitate mutual learning by addressing key topics in migration research to policy relations.
  6. have built-in flexibility to respond to new and emerging issues.
  7. expand the strategic scope of the work by complementing and enhancing the role of existing EU networks and evidence sources.
  8. provide insights from behavioural science to bridge work on narratives, frames, and perceptions.
  9. create measurable indicators of the project’s success and impact in terms of building capacity, incentivising engagement, increasing demand, and increasing uptake.
  10. establish activities with the potential to generate income beyond the duration of funding.

Migration Research to Policy Co-lab

There’s plenty of research on migration, yet it is often ignored when shaping policy due to politicized agendas and barriers in translating data into action.  

12 partner institutions - including IRC Italy, IRC Greece and IRC Serbia - have pooled their resources through the Horizon Europe-funded INNOVATE project to launch the Migration Research to Policy Co-Lab and ultimately bridge the gap between research and policy. The Co-Lab connects researchers, practitioners and policymakers to ensure evidence is useful, practical, and applicable for today’s migration challenges. The Co-Lab's vision is simple: ensuring that policymakers, practitioners and researchers work together to create solutions to the most pressing migration issues. 

It facilitates engagement with policymakers and provides training modules to embed good practices observed and tested during the project. The consortium moves beyond the usual dissemination strategy, thanks to a tailored Dissemination, Exploitation and Communication (DEC) plan, which aims to show how researchers and practitioners can best communicate their findings to policymakers and the public, translating long and complex issues into simple and understandable concepts.

The Co-Lab was launched on September 25 during a roundtable discussion with policymakers, researchers and practitioners in the field of migration, which set the scene for collaborative work to build more effective engagement around research evidence. During the launch, it was highlighted that evidence is “one voice in a noisy room”. Therefore, the challenge is not the lack of evidence, but how to ensure that these data are used more effectively by those who can benefit from them. 

The Co-Lab includes resources that are tailored to different audiences – whether they are policymakers, researchers or practitioners. In addition, it features: 

Research results can point in different directions, and migration is a highly politicized issue. This is why projects like this, which store the outputs and findings of different research projects in a database and provide useful engagement recommendations, are essential. 

Core components of the project

  1. The challenge of evidence in a Common European Asylum System (CEAS) (Lead partner: European Council on Refugees and Exiles AISBL (ECRE) - Belgium​)
  2. Responding to large scale displacement (Lead partner: Universytet Warszawski (UNIWARSAW) - Poland​)
  3. Integration and long-term inclusion through migrant self-employment (Lead partner: Migration Policy Group (MPG) - Belgium​, with IRC support)
  4. Mutual learning between researchers and national governments (Lead partner: International Center for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) - Austria​)
  5. Migration, mobility, forced displacement and development (Lead partner: European University Institute (EUI) – Italy)
  6. Protecting children in migration (Lead partner: International Rescue Committee Italy - Italy​). See here for additional details.
  7. Responding to links between climate change and migration (Lead partner: : European University Institute (EUI) – Italy)

External partners

Belgium

Poland

Luxembourg

Austria

Germany

Netherlands

United Kingdom

Turkey

Useful links

Below are some useful links if you want to find out more about the INNOVATE project and the Co-Lab: 

 

Funded by the European Union, under the Grant Agreement no. 101132593