EUROPEAN COUNCIL ON REFUGEES AND EXILES AISBL

Their core work

ECRE is a pan-European alliance of NGOs working on refugee protection, asylum law, and EU migration policy. In research consortia, they contribute civil society expertise, policy analysis, and direct knowledge of how asylum systems function in practice — bridging the gap between academic research and the lived experience of refugees and the organisations that serve them. Their H2020 work focused on evaluating and reforming the Common European Asylum System (CEAS), combining legal analysis with NGO field intelligence. They are not a think-tank producing abstract reports; they are practitioners who advocate, litigate, and operate within asylum systems across Europe.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

ECRE's H2020 participation spans only 2017–2020 with two closely related projects, making a meaningful evolution analysis difficult. Both projects sit squarely within the same thematic space — asylum system evaluation and migration research infrastructure — suggesting a deliberate, focused engagement with EU-funded research rather than a broadening portfolio. There is no visible pivot or expansion; ECRE entered H2020 with a clear purpose and stayed consistent with it.

ECRE's trajectory points toward institutionalising research-practice links in migration governance — ReSOMA's platform model suggests they are interested in becoming a durable infrastructure node for migration research, not just a one-off project participant.

How they like to work

ECRE has never led an H2020 project, consistently joining as a participant — a pattern consistent with an advocacy organisation that contributes domain expertise and civil society legitimacy rather than research management capacity. Their two projects together involved 21 distinct consortium partners across 13 countries, indicating participation in large, multidisciplinary consortia rather than tight bilateral partnerships. For prospective collaborators, this means ECRE is a valued specialist contributor, not a project driver.

ECRE has built connections with 21 partners across 13 countries through just two projects, reflecting the broad, multinational consortia typical of EU migration research. Their network spans academic institutions, research centres, and other civil society organisations across the EU, consistent with their role as a pan-European membership alliance.

What sets them apart

ECRE is one of the few organisations in Europe that combines legal expertise in asylum law with a direct membership network of frontline NGOs operating in dozens of countries — a combination that gives research consortia both normative authority and real-world access to data and case knowledge. No academic institution can replicate this: ECRE's members are inside the asylum system, not studying it from the outside. For any consortium working on migration governance, forced displacement, or refugee protection, ECRE provides the civil society legitimacy and practitioner grounding that reviewers and funders expect.

Highlights from their portfolio

• CEASEVAL
  The largest of ECRE's H2020 projects (EUR 133,500), this was a direct evaluation of the Common European Asylum System under pressure — a high-profile policy question with direct legislative implications for EU reform debates.
• ReSOMA
  Rather than producing a single research output, this project built a living research-practice platform on migration and asylum, positioning ECRE as an ongoing infrastructure node connecting researchers and civil society actors.