On 18 March 2025, the Co-Lab gathered 120 participants for the launch of the Good Practices Toolkit, a resource developed by researchers for researchers. The toolkit aims to enhance research communication, facilitate the integration of evidence into migration decision-making, and strengthen collaboration between researchers and policymakers. While specifically designed for the migration field, its strategies are adaptable across sectors.
Introducing the toolkit, Alexander Wolffhardt from the Migration Policy Group emphasised it as a solution to addressing the longstanding challenges of translating data into policy impact. “We identified a gap: the need for concrete examples, experiences from colleagues, and an approach that is accessible and simple (…) We carried out a collaborative effort involving universities, think tanks, and organizations that combine research with advocacy to identify best practices,” Wolffhardt explained.
The toolkit is structured into six sections that cover the entire research process—not just the final stages when findings are ready and policy recommendations have already been identified. "If you want to produce something that aims to impact policy, invite and involve policymakers from the beginning (...). involving them at later stages rarely works," said Meltem İneli Ciğer, Assistant Professor at Suleyman Demirel University, one of the contributors to the toolkit.
The first part of the toolkit encourages researchers to understand their audience by mapping out target groups, staying informed about current policy debates, and adapting messages to meet the needs of policy actors.
During the launch, the authors also stressed that relationship-building is a long-term investment. Trust with policymakers grows through regular communication and mutual respect, avoiding hierarchical or condescending attitudes.
Flaminia delle Cese, Legal and Advocacy Advisor at the International Rescue Committee Italy, emphasised the importance of tailoring research to policymakers’ priorities and timelines. “We once decided to postpone the publication of an output by one month to coincide with the one-year milestone of a policy,” she shared.
Disinformation and the Policy Uptake Challenge
The toolkit launch was followed by a panel discussion titled ‘Information Wars: The Search for the Truth on Immigration.’ Panelists included Anna Strolenberg, Member of the European Parliament; Nikolaj Nielsen, reporter at EUobserver; and Alberto Horst Neidhardt, Senior Policy Analyst and Head of the European Diversity and Migration Programme at the European Policy Centre.
Since 2020, disinformation trends have become more entrenched, with actors refining their strategies and tactics, particularly in online narratives, noted Alberto Horst Neidhardt. He stressed that disinformation actors are, in many ways, winning the battle of narratives by skilfully blending real-life events with falsehoods in political debates.
Despite increasing fact-checking efforts, viral stories resonate more strongly with people than broader evidence often fail.
Panelists agreed that failure to tackle deeper social anxieties—such as housing shortages, unemployment, and economic insecurity—leaves the root causes of migration-related disinformation unaddressed.
Andrew Geddes, project coordinator and director of the Migration Policy Centre, underscored the need for better integration of research into policy.
“In recent years, there has been significant investment in migration research, yet we’re not seeing enough uptake in policy. That’s what we are trying to address at the Co-Lab. Many organisations produce knowledge about migration; we want to understand how engagement works at different levels, what the main obstacles are, and how to overcome them.” With the launch of this toolkit, the Co-Lab hopes to empower migration researchers to engage more effectively with policymakers, ensuring that evidence-based insights inform real-world decisions.
The toolkit can be accessed here.
The Migration Research to Policy Co-Lab is an EU Horizon Europe-funded project, consisting of a consortium of 12 partners led by the Migration Policy Centre at the European University Institute.