Urban Europe Launches Call on Urban Migration
JPI Urban Europe has launched a new Call on Urban Migration which invites transdisciplinary and cross-sectoral communities of researchers and practitioners to create projects that align, synthesise or consolidate already existing knowledge on urban migration across disciplines on national and local levels.
The focus of the Call is the ways that migration affects and is affected by the life and functioning of cities.
Proposals should focus on one, many or a mix of migration types, categorized based on the following three principles (World Economic Forum, 2017):
1. Political boundaries (internal vs. international migration)
2. Movement patterns (step, circular or chain migration)
3. Taking a decision-making approach (voluntary vs. involuntary migration)
Project proposals should at least address one of the following topics:
Topic 1: Socio-spatial integration and citizen involvement: Increased migration flow to urban areas can result in new opportunities as well as in challenges. One set of challenges in need of research and innovation concerns inequalities as well as socio-spatial and cultural segregation due to socio-demographic changes in communities and other local groupings. There is a need for new knowledge on measures and strategies that can promote social integration and increase citizen involvement and participation among populations. There is also a need for more knowledge based on comparisons between different spatial levels and types of cities.
Topic 2: Urban governance of housing issues: To be able to manage migration and assist the long-term integration of migrants, cities need to adapt solid housing practices and measures. Cities’ leeway in providing and assisting migrants has been dependent on the degree of state control vs. local and regional autonomy. Furthermore, factors of historical and cultural nature are important at the urban level. In relation to this, providing adequate and affordable housing to migrants is one of the biggest challenges, in terms of stresses on some cities’ settlement and housing capacities. Meanwhile, many urban areas experience an increased pressure on the housing market by other dynamics including the movement of citizens from rural to urban areas as well as demographic changes in the host populations.
Topic 3: Enhancing cities’ administrative capacities and supporting evidence-based integration policies (managing migration): Many initiatives, policies and actions have been undertaken to support integration processes in European urban areas, both to be able to handle emergency situations as well as long-term migration flows. However, difficulties exist in sharing information, results, knowledge and experiences of such initiatives to inform evidence-based urban policy making in Europe. Furthermore, there are insufficient tools for evidence-based integration and cross-country comparability of integration indicators in urban areas. Building an EU-wide knowledge base on integration measures and research results at city and regional levels can help to enhance policy learning and build an evidence base that can inform the translation of good practices into different urban contexts and support policy learning.
The results from projects granted in this Call should help to facilitate knowledge transfer and learning from different contexts, cities and countries to create greater engagement and understanding in migrant as well as host communities.
A total of approximately €2.02 million is available for the Call. The indicative budget per funded collaborative project (for all partners involved in a project) is €50.000 to €250.000. The following countries are participating in the Call: Austria, Germany, Latvia, Sweden and United Kingdom.
The deadline for pre-proposals is 26 March 2020.
More information about this research funding opportunity and the application process is available on the RESEARCHconnect funding information platform. RESEARCHconnect provides up-to-the minute content, insight and analysis on research funding news and policy. To find out more about how RESEARCHconnect can keep you in the know, and subscription fees, contact us today.