MENEDEK-MIGRANSOKAT SEGITO EGYESULET

Their core work

MENEDEK (Hungarian Association for Migrants) is a Budapest-based civil society organization that provides direct support services to migrants, refugees, and forcibly displaced people in Hungary. In EU research projects, they serve as a field-practice partner, bringing real-world case access, community trust, and on-the-ground implementation experience that academic partners cannot replicate. Their contribution to research consortia includes running action research units, supporting data gathering from vulnerable populations, and testing inclusion methodologies with actual migrant communities. They translate research outputs into community-adapted interventions, making them a bridge between policy research and lived reality.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

Their early H2020 work (RAISD, 2019) centered on vulnerability mapping and inclusion strategy — the focus was on diagnosing problems: who is at risk, in what contexts, and how to personalise interventions using data. The shift in their more recent project (ReROOT, 2021) is notable: the language moves away from vulnerability and toward belonging, arrival, and social participation — a shift from problem identification to integration outcomes. This suggests MENEDEK is maturing from crisis-response framing toward longer-term settlement and community membership as the core research question.

MENEDEK is moving toward research on long-term social integration and community belonging, making them a relevant partner for projects addressing urban integration policy, civic participation, or post-arrival support systems.

How they like to work

MENEDEK has never led an H2020 project — they join as participants, consistent with the role NGOs typically play in research consortia: providing field access, community trust, and implementation capacity rather than scientific coordination. Their two projects drew on a combined pool of 19 partners across 13 countries, suggesting they are comfortable in large, interdisciplinary European consortia. For a potential partner, this means MENEDEK brings practitioner legitimacy and real-world testing ground, but does not seek to drive the research agenda.

Across just two projects, MENEDEK has worked with 19 distinct partners in 13 countries — a wide European footprint for such a small portfolio, reflecting their participation in large multi-partner RIA consortia. Their network likely spans social science research institutes, municipal authorities, and other civil society organizations across the EU.

What sets them apart

MENEDEK occupies a specific niche that few Hungarian organizations can fill in EU research: direct service delivery to migrants combined with the credibility to engage vulnerable populations in participatory research. Where most research partners contribute data analysis or theoretical frameworks, MENEDEK contributes community access, trust relationships, and real implementation context. For consortium builders working on migration, integration, or social inclusion topics, MENEDEK provides the Hungarian national case and the practitioner grounding that strengthens the applied dimension of any proposal.

Highlights from their portfolio

• RAISD
  Their largest funded project (€236,187), addressing personalised inclusion strategies for the most vulnerable displaced people — a complex intersection of data methodology and community-adapted intervention design.
• ReROOT
  Their most recent and longest-running project (2021-2025), examining arrival infrastructures as integration sites — a shift toward systems-level thinking about how cities and services shape newcomer belonging.