Innovating to Enhance Dialogues on Migration Policies and Practices (INNOVATE)

The INNOVATE project aims to facilitate a step change in the types, scope, forms and impacts of Migration Research to Policy (MR2P) engagement. It will do so through a series of Actions that develop, test, apply and communicate Process Innovations that are grounded in the needs and interests of researchers, policy-makers and other key stakeholders, including migrants, that are engaged with migration issues across governance levels from the local to the international. It will then embed these within an MR2P Collaboratory with both a ‘real’ and ‘virtual’ presence comprising a Research Exchange, Engagement Hub and Training Facility. The project’s Objectives are to: 1. Establish as a key project outcome the MR2P Collaboratory as a go-to resource that promotes use of and valorises research evidence in both ‘virtual’ and ‘real’ formats to support policymaking. 2. Develop its coordination and support actions based on principles of co-creation that are migrant-centred. 3. Create opportunities for mutual learning between researchers, policy-makers, citizens and people with lived migration experiences. 4. Engage at all stages with Strategic Stakeholders to generate a multiplier effect of increased engagement during the life of the project. 5. Design Process Innovation Actions to promote use of and valorise knowledge and promote mutual learning by addressing key topics in MR2P relations 6. Have built-in margins of 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 along four dimensions: building capacity; incentivising engagement; in incentivising engagement; increasing demand; and increasing uptake. 10. Establish activities with the potential to generate income beyond the duration of funding.