Principal Investigator: Ahmet İçduygu (Coordinator)

Partner Instutions and PIs: Jan C. Rath from Universiteit Van Amsterdam (Amsterdam, NL), and Ricard Zapata Barrero from Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona, ESP)

Researchers: Birce Altıok, Ceren Kulkul, Diletta Marcucci, Gülşen Doğan, Hacer Gören, Norma Schemschat, Pelin Kılınçarslan, Rafik Arfaoui

Funder: European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation under agreement No. 101079254

Project Budget: ~1.4 million Euro

BROAD-ER is a research network project aiming to enhance the scientific, technological and development-driven management capacities of Koc University (KU), Migration Research Center at Koç University (MiReKoc) in Istanbul, Turkey, by linking it with two internationally leading research institutions in the themes of migration and urban studies. Through the twinning network that will be developed with the advanced institutions of The University of Amsterdam (UvA), The Netherlands and Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Spain, KU aims to improve its attractiveness as a leading research destination for top-class researchers. Moreover, it aspires to become an important regional Centre of Excellence for South-Eastern Europe, that will connect ERA countries, while realizing the relevant regional, national, and European priorities. BROAD-ER is ideally suited to fill the below mentioned gaps by bringing together leading experts in the field of migration and urban studies, leveraging European best practices, and implementing the necessary institutional changes towards KU’s full participation in the ERA priorities.

Website: https://broad-er.eu/

Twitter: @broad_er

Partners: Universiteit Van Amsterdam (Amsterdam, NL) and Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona, ESP)

Principal Investigators: Ahmet İçduygu

Researcher: Birce Demiryontar, Birce Altıok, Burcu Yakıcı, Esin Aksezer, Souad Osseiran

Funder: ERASMUS+ European Universities Programme

The European University of Post-Industrial Cities (UNIC) is a unique alliance of eight universities in post-industrial cities that all face similar challenges and opportunities in terms of mobility, inclusion, and diversity. The UNIC alliance reflects a strong European post-industrial identity by shaping a new generation of Europeans able to cooperate and work within different European and global cultures, in different languages, and across borders, sectors and academic disciplines. Our ambition is to develop innovative and sustainable means of university collaboration that will boost student and staff mobility while fostering social inclusion and furthering societal impact. UNIC aims to grow towards optimum institutional convergence of its member universities in order to effectively deploy our shared experience of teaching and researching in post-industrial cities.

UNIC will become a model for effective physical and virtual exchange for all students; for the fruitful interconnection of universities and cities, and for a research-led approach to superdiversity that together will result in greater urban equality and productivity. The UNIC partners have united to enhance and extend regional high-quality education and research through inter-European cooperation in order to offer students truly European learning, teaching, and working experiences. We will combine our educational and research experiences and devise new models for inter-culturally respectful interaction both within our classrooms and our cities. Our students and staff will contribute innovative ideas and practices to promote a successful and inclusive urban future where academia meets the city. UNIC provides a model that will help other European universities to extend mobility and inclusion for societal impact. UNIC is a true agent of change in the transformation of post-industrial work and life and will make a significant contribution to the future of higher education in Europe.

Website: unic.eu

Twitter: UNIC_EU

Partners: The project is being coordinated by Erasmus University Rotterdam (Rotterdam, NL). Other members of the Consortium are Koç University (İstanbul, TUR); Ruhr University of Bochum (RUB, GER); University College Cork (Cork, IRL); University of Deusto (Bilbao, ESP); University of Liège (BEL); University of Oulu (FIN); University of Zagreb (Zagreb, CRO).

Principal Investigators: Ahmet İçduygu

Researchers: Nilay Kavur, Banu Liman

Funder: H2020 (ERASMUS+ European Universities Programme –complementary to UNIC) (Duration: 36 months, since September 2021)

The European University of Post-Industrial Cities (UNIC) is an alliance of eight universities and cities, which aims to develop a new model of European inter‐ institutional teaching and research infrastructure built upon interrogating and addressing the issues facing post‐industrial cities, particularly issues of inclusion and diversity. UNIC has a distinct focus on engaged research (UNIC4ER), which builds upon our strategic advantage as an alliance of research‐intensive universities and City partners with experience in issues of post‐industrial transitions and collaboration with society. Engaged Research is an umbrella term for a wide range of rigorous research approaches and methodologies that share a common interest in collaborative engagement with society. Engaged Research aims to improve, understand, or investigate an issue of public interest or concern, including societal challenges where community partners are or can be potentially active collaborative participants in the research process.  In this context, community partners refer to a range of public research stakeholders, including public or professional service and product users, policy makers, civil and civic society organisations (CSOs) and actors. Examples of Engaged Research can be found across all disciplines using terms such as: participatory action research, community engaged research, design thinking, open innovation, public-patient involvement, co-creation, co-production, co-operative inquiry, citizen science and many more.

• Engaged research aims to address societal challenges.
• Engaged research consists of research approaches and methodologies that share a common interest in collaborative engagement with the community.
• Engaged research is advanced with community partners rather than for them.
• Community is represented by city representatives (municipality), civil society representatives, private corporations, and/or engaged citizens.

https://www.unic.eu/en/research

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Partners: The project is being coordinated by Erasmus University Rotterdam (Rotterdam, NL). Other members of the Consortium are Koç University (İstanbul, TUR); Ruhr University of Bochum (RUB, GER); University College Cork (Cork, IRL); University of Deusto (Bilbao, ESP); University of Liège (BEL); University of Oulu (FIN); University of Zagreb (Zagreb, CRO).

Principal Investigators: Çetin Çelik

Researchers: Birce Altıok (MiReKoc), Begüm Sonbahar, Eleni Pothou

Funder: Horizon 2020 – the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation

Overview:

Principle Investigator: Ahmet İçduygu

Researcher: Souad Osseiran

Project duration: 2019-2022 (36 months)

Aiding large numbers of urban displaced is a major challenge to humanitarian policy. Unable to the address the root causes of displacement, the international community is searching for better polices to address displacement in fragile host countries as this is not only a key development challenge, but also an opportunity: towns and cities offer better prospects for medium-term integration and self-reliance than do traditional rural and camp-based responses. To this end, there has been a transition from person-centric (rights-based) towards site-centric (place-based) approaches integrated in a comprehensive developmental approach to urban displacement. This project seeks to add to these efforts by investigating the key elements needed for instituting a place-centred (area-based) urban response for Middle East refugees and IDPs. This research aims to produce comprehensive and comparable information about the needs of urban based Syrian refugees in Turkey and other countries neighboring Syria with the goal of contributing to the development of effective urban refugee policies in the region. While there is macro aggregrated data about refugees in the countries where the study will be carried out (Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq), there is limited research on the micro-level experiences of refugees and the impact of policies on refugee choices of living place and living experiences.

Funder: Norwegian Research Council

Partners: Chr. Michelsen Institute (CMI), Institute Français du Proche-Orient (Jordan), Middle East Research Institute (MERI), Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI)

Principle researcher: Souad Osseiran

Project Team: Birce Demiryontar, Ezgi Elçi, İlker Kayı

Funder: Koç University Seed fund

Project duration: September 2020- August 2022 (24 months)

The study focuses on the health-return nexus by exploring how health care infrastructure in Syria influences Syrian refugees’ return migration decisions. The research aims at developing evidence based, policy-oriented recommendations concerning the health infrastructure in Syria and the importance of health in refugee return decisions. Existing research examining Syrian refugees’ return migration attitudes neglects health and access to healthcare as considerations in return migration decisions (Erdoğan 2020). The limited existent research on the impact of health on return migration decisions demonstrates the significance of exploring healthcare and access to health in return migration decisions (Razum et al.,2005; Kristiansen et al., 2015; Handlos et al., 2015). In the Turkish migratory context, this remains an under-researched issue and this research aims to address this gap in knowledge thereby contributing to developing comprehensive and holistic policy recommendations concerning return-oriented refugees’ healthcare needs.

Principal Investigators: Ayşen Üstübici,  Ahmet İçduygu

Researcher: Eda Kirişçioğlu (MiReKoc), Ezgi Elçi (MiReKoc), Sibel Karadağ (MiReKoc)

Funder: Horizon 2020 – the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (2014-2020)

Overview: The international consortium Advancing Alternative Migration Governance (ADMIGOV) will investigate the conformity of European migration policy in practice with the basic principles of the United Nations. This project has received a subsidy of €3 million under the Horizon 2020 programme of the European Commission and has a duration of 4 years. The European Union is firmly committed to the 2016 New York Declaration and the 2030 United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. In these treaties, states have agreed to cooperate and take common responsibility for migration and refugee issues, and work to end extreme poverty, inequality, injustice and climate change worldwide. What type of migration policy can contribute to putting these principles and priorities into practice? The international team will analyse current migration and focus on three basic situations in which EU and national policy are implemented: (1) entry/access to the EU; (2) leaving the EU (voluntarily or not); and (3) innovative possibilities for temporary and circular migration. The team looks in detail at the implementation of two basic principles: the protection principle and the principle to support development goals. It also focuses on possible tensions between different policy solutions (such as the tension between protecting and controlling) as well as between existing policies and the unprecedented numbers of migrants in practice. The research will be carried out in the prosperous part of the EU (such as the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany) as well as at the edges of the EU (Greece, Turkey, Spain and Poland). In addition, the team will collect data from migrants en route, and investigate the situation in countries of origin and transit situations such as Lebanon, Niger and Ethiopia. By choosing these locations, the team hopes to gain insight into the most crucial and problematic processes around migration and migration policy that are currently at play.

Website: admigov.eu

Twitter: admigov

Partners: The project is being coordinated by Dr Anja van Heelsum (principal investigator), Dr Jeroen Doomernik, Dr Polly Pallister-Wilkins and Dr Barak Kalir. The University of Amsterdam conducts the research together with the Maastricht, Aegean, Aalborg, Barcelona (UB), Brussels (ULB), Wrocław and Addis Ababa universities, as well as Koç University, the American University in Beirut, Clingendael Institute, the Centre for International Information and Documentation in Barcelona and the Danish Refugee Council.

Principal Investigators: Ayşen Üstübici, Ahmet İçduygu

Researcher: Pınar Ensari

Funder: Horizon 2020 – the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (2014-2020)

Overview: Two of the most influential ideas in migration research and policy are ‘migration management’ and ‘the migration–development nexus’. In Europe no less than in other regions of the world, each of these notions has spawned substantial research. But the connections between the two remain elusive. Addressing migration challenges requires an approach that aligns the two research fields and translates the linkages into policy implications. This is the challenge at the heart of MIGNEX. To our knowledge, MIGNEX is the largest European-funded research project on migration. This feature attests to the complexity and potential impact of the project. (Other research initiatives with larger budgets have addressed migration as one of several topics, been programmes rather than focused projects, or had other forms of funding.) The project will run for five years from September 2018. Primary field research will take place in ten countries of origin and transit: Afghanistan, Cabo Verde, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Nigeria, Pakistan, Somalia, Tunisia, and Turkey. Data collection will encompass policy reviews, key informant interviews, focus groups, and a large sample survey. Much of the data collection will be focused on 25 research areas spread across the ten countries, allowing for identifying mechanisms at the local level.

Project Website: MIGNEX

Newsletter: MIGNEX has been producing a quarterly newsletter with updates about the project’s activities and results, since June 2019. Sign up here.

End-User Panel: The End-User Panel provides a means for MIGNEX to engage with a large and varied group of end users, who contribute their views in targeted and time-efficient ways. The panel includes the policy community, academic community, civil society and private sector. Apply here to join the MIGNEX End-User Panel.

Partners: The project is carried out by a consortium of nine institutions:

• Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO), Norway – Coordinator
• Danube University Krems, Austria
• University of Ghana, Ghana
• Koç University, Turkey
• Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), Pakistan
• University of Maastricht, Netherlands
• Overseas Development Institute (ODI), United Kingdom
• University of Oxford, United Kingdom
• Samuel Hall, Afghanistan (subcontractor)

Principal Investigators: Ahmet İçduygu

Investigators: Özgür İlke Şanlıer Yüksel (Çukurova University), Şebnem Köşer Akçapar (Koç University), Sedef Turper (Koç University), Kadir Onur Unutulmaz (Social Sciences University of Ankara), İlker Kayı (Koç University)

Researchers: Burak Ağalday, Fevza Köseoğlu Darılmaz, Duygu Merve Uysal

Funder: TUBITAK 1003 Program

Overview:The Project assesses the increasing migration movements in Turkey over the medium and long term results to discuss governance issues of migration in Turkey. The study will examine the relevant regulations introduced by the central government, as well as how these regulations are implemented by different actors at the local level. In addition, the findings obtained from this study will be based on a historical framework and will examine the reasons, how they affect our cities in different periods and different kinds of immigration movements in different periods since the 1990s. The research project also aims to renew and improve the existing immigration and migration policy governance concepts and practices of migration movements of the last thirty years in Turkey in the light of their effects of on the urban transformation. The research project will analyze the relationships between the migration processes and the transformations in the cities in different regions of our country by gathering and evaluating the data of local governments, local people and migrants arriving in different periods with scientific methods.

Steering Committee Member: Ahmet İçduygu

Researcher: Birce Altıok

Funder: Erasmus + Jean Monnet Network Program

Overview: EUMedMi Jean Monnet Network seeks to forge a community of researchers to develop the field of European Mediterranean Migration Studies. In spite of an existing burgeoning literature, this field is dispersed in Mediterranean and Migration European Studies. The main scientific purpose is two-fold. First, to collect and map the accumulated body of knowledge since the EuroMed neighbourhood cooperation framework was constituted in 1995. Second, to define this R&I agenda for the coming years. The concrete means for this first three-year period is to create a networking platform promoting Research Excellence, Post-graduate Training and Research/Policy/Social Dialogue. Composed of 7 members and 10 associate partners, EUMedMi covers the overall Mediterranean geographical scope. It is intentionally multi-disciplinary and multi-methods, with social and policy influential partners. EUMedMi ambition is to become a reference focal point for the development of a Mediterranean Migration research agenda within European Studies. Each partner will develop their own research related to the overall Mediterranean Migration research agenda in European Studies, and the ground for knowledge exchange. A Ph.D. Summer School and a seminar series with WP and Audio-Visual Material production will concentrate the Training’s activities. A national-based WS series will also ensure the policy, social and research Dialogue. The ambition of the innovative research is also present by organizing a final Symposium involving scholars, policymakers and stakeholders from all the rims of the Mediterranean, to discuss within European Studies how Mediterranean cities could become new drivers for changing the current state-based Euro-Mediterranean policy paradigm. Finally, all the research and training activities will be channelled towards the edition of a Handbook on European Mediterranean Migration Studies. (See project card)

Duration: EUMedMi is a three-year international project funded by the Erasmus + Jean Monnet Network Program and is within the framework of EuroMedMig IMISCOE Regional Network.

Website: Click here.

Download Brochure to know more about this Network

Twitter: /EuroMedMig

Members:

• GRITIM-UPF, Catalonia (Coordinator- Ricard Zapata-Barrero – GRITIM-UPF)
• CMRS, Egypt (Co-coordinator)
• CEDEM, Belgium
• IGOT, Portugal
• MiReKoc, Turkey
• University of Sousse, Tunisia
• URMIS, France

Researchers: Souad Osseiran

Overview: Forced Migration Resource Center at Koc University (FMRC) is an online platform established by Migration Research Center at Koc University (MiReKoc) in partnership with Vehbi Koc Foundation (VKV). The platform draws together a diverse collection of reliable and accurate resources concerning forced migration in general and Syrian refugees in particular. The center provides online and free access to anyone – that is, individual researchers, universities, civil society organizations, international organizations, policy makers, media, and displaced persons themselves seeking information into issues related to forced migration and asylum. The primary aim of FMRC is to increase the research capacity of all state and non-state actors working in the field and enhance inter-institutional communication among civil society, academia, policy-makers and international organizations addressing the issue of forced migration. It also aims to prevent the information pollution and regulate the overload of information in the field.