KAMUSAL POLITIKA VE DEMOKRASI CALISMALARI DERNEGI

Their core work

PODEM (Public Policy and Democracy Studies Association) is a Turkish civil society research organization based in Istanbul that studies political dynamics across the Middle East, North Africa, and Mediterranean basin. Their core work covers geopolitical shifts, regional security architectures, minority rights, refugee movements, and the role of non-state actors in shaping political order. As a Turkish NGO positioned at the geographic intersection of Europe and the MENA region, they bring direct regional proximity, civil society networks, and ground-level analytical access that academic institutions in Western Europe typically lack. Their H2020 contributions focused on providing policy-relevant analysis of how conflicts, identities, and resource competition reshape regional order.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

PODEM's entire H2020 participation is compressed into a single 2016 cohort, with both projects running simultaneously through 2019, making meaningful evolution analysis impossible from this dataset. All captured keywords — refugees, minorities, identities, non-state actors, social movements, regional order, conflicts — belong to this one period, and there is no second-phase keyword data to indicate a shift. What this pattern does suggest is a focused, stable thematic identity rather than an organization that pivots across domains.

With no H2020 projects recorded after 2016 and no second-phase keyword data, it is unclear whether PODEM continued pursuing EU-funded research — any future collaborator should verify current activity directly before assuming this expertise profile is still active.

How they like to work

PODEM has never led an H2020 project — both participations are as a consortium partner, which is consistent with a specialized civil society contributor rather than a project management hub. Across two projects they engaged 21 distinct partners in 14 countries, indicating comfort in large, multinational research consortia typical of Societal Challenges RIA projects. Partners should expect PODEM to contribute regional expertise, civil society perspectives, and MENA-specific networks rather than coordination capacity or technical infrastructure.

PODEM has worked with 21 unique consortium partners spanning 14 countries through just two projects, pointing to involvement in sizeable, geographically diverse research consortia. Their network is likely concentrated in the Euro-Mediterranean arc — Southern European universities, Middle Eastern research institutes, and Northern African policy centers.

What sets them apart

PODEM occupies a rare position as a Turkish NGO with direct physical and institutional proximity to the MENA region, offering something most Western European research partners cannot — embeddedness in the political and civil society landscape that these projects study. For any consortium researching Mediterranean security, migration flows, or MENA political dynamics, a Turkish civil society actor provides legitimacy and access that external academic observers lack. Their combination of policy orientation and democratic governance focus also bridges the gap between academic research outputs and actionable policy recommendations for EU institutions.

Highlights from their portfolio

• MedReset
  PODEM's largest funded project (EUR 304,170), offering a comprehensive bottom-up reset of how the EU understands and engages with the Mediterranean — high policy relevance for EU foreign affairs institutions.
• MENARA
  Broad geopolitical mapping of MENA regional architecture covering conflicts, minorities, refugees, and non-state actors — exactly the analytical terrain where PODEM's civil society positioning adds distinct value.