ASSOCIATION POUR LA COOPERATION ACADEMIQUE - ACADEMIC COOPERATION ASSOCIATION

Their core work

The Academic Cooperation Association (ACA) is a Brussels-based NGO specialising in European higher education cooperation, with a demonstrated focus on supporting refugee students and scholars within European university systems. Their H2020 work centres on designing peer-learning frameworks and cross-country guidance programs that help displaced academics navigate European institutions. They coordinate practical support networks — connecting refugees to host universities, career pathways, and European researcher mobility infrastructure such as the EURAXESS portal. ACA's value lies not in research production but in system-building: creating the processes, tools, and networks that make academic integration work at a European scale.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

ACA's two-project H2020 trajectory shows a deliberate deepening of scope rather than a change of direction. Their 2018 project (GREET) focused on entry-level academic integration — peer learning, cross-country support, and helping refugee students and scholars find a footing inside European higher education institutions. By 2019 (CARe), the focus shifted downstream: from campus access to what comes after, specifically career advancement, labour market integration, and connecting refugee researchers to European professional infrastructure like EURAXESS. The trajectory is from academic hospitality to economic participation — a logical and intentional progression.

ACA is moving from campus-level welcome programs toward systemic career and labour market integration for displaced researchers — suggesting future work could include employer-facing programs, recognition of foreign qualifications, or European-scale researcher mobility policy.

How they like to work

ACA exclusively takes the coordinator role — they do not join projects as a partner, they lead them. Their consortia are very small (only 2 unique partners across both projects, spanning 2 countries), which suggests they prefer tight, focused partnerships over large multi-country networks. This points to an organisation that works best in a driving seat with a small number of deeply aligned partners rather than as one voice among many in a large consortium.

ACA's H2020 network is minimal — 2 unique consortium partners across 2 countries. Their reach is concentrated rather than broad, which is consistent with their niche focus area and small project budgets.

What sets them apart

ACA occupies a narrow but genuine niche: they are one of very few EU-funded organisations that coordinates programs specifically at the intersection of forced migration, higher education, and European researcher mobility infrastructure. Unlike university departments that study this topic academically, ACA builds operational programs — guidance systems, peer networks, career support tools — that produce tangible outputs for displaced scholars. For consortium builders working on migration, education equity, or researcher mobility, ACA brings coordination experience and a ready network in a space where few specialist NGOs have EU project track records.

Highlights from their portfolio

• CARe
  The larger of the two projects (€150,672) and the more ambitious in scope, extending ACA's work beyond university access into career development and labour market integration for refugee researchers, with explicit use of the EURAXESS mobility platform.
• GREET
  ACA's first H2020 coordination, establishing their foundational peer-learning and cross-country support model for refugee students — the conceptual basis for everything that followed.