Led by the Migration Policy Centre’s Andrew Geddes, the project is run through a consortium of 12 partners and hundreds of strategic stakeholders. Funded by the EU's Horizon Europe programme, INNOVATE will address the challenges that have traditionally hindered effective migration policymaking. These challenges include the disconnect between researchers and policymakers and discrepancies in evidence utilisation.
Over the next three years, INNOVATE will conduct seven ‘living labs’ called Process Innovation Actions, where researchers, policymakers and other stakeholders, including migrants, will work together on critical migration issues such as asylum procedures, migrant entrepreneurship and climate-induced displacement. Each lab will use a different approach and new tools to facilitate engagement among stakeholders and test how these strategies influence research and policy engagement. Additionally, INNOVATE will conduct scientific testing to understand how people process evidence neurologically and behaviourally.
These learnings will be shared and promoted through the Migration Research to Policy Co-Lab, which will launch later this year. The Co-Lab will facilitate knowledge exchange between policymakers and researchers, equip researchers with tools on how to improve their communication with policymakers, and provide training to support ongoing collaboration.
To learn more about the INNOVATE project, visit their website and sign up for their newsletter to stay up-to-date on the launch of the Migration Research to Policy Co-Lab.