REDE EUROPEIA ANTI POBREZA PORTUGAL ASSOCIACAO

Their core work

REAPN (Rede Europeia Anti Pobreza Portugal) is the Portuguese national member of the European Anti-Poverty Network — a civil society association dedicated to combating poverty and social exclusion. In EU research, they contribute practitioner knowledge, policy advocacy expertise, and direct connections to communities affected by poverty and inequality. Their participation spans social investment policy reform and, more recently, research on how public narratives and media shape attitudes toward migration and integration. They function as a civil society anchor in academic-led consortia, grounding research in the lived experience of vulnerable populations.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In the early period (RE-InVEST, 2015–2019), REAPN's research engagement centered on European social investment frameworks, solidarity, and policy responses to inequality — a direct extension of anti-poverty advocacy work. By the recent period (OPPORTUNITIES, 2021–2025), the focus shifted clearly toward narrative and media dimensions: how migration stories are told, who controls the frame, and how public attitudes are shaped through cross-cultural dialogue and social media. This is not a break from their mission but a broadening — from policy structures to the communication layer that shapes political will for those policies.

REAPN appears to be moving toward communication-science and narrative research, suggesting future collaboration interest will likely sit at the intersection of civil society, media studies, and migration policy.

How they like to work

REAPN has never led an H2020 project — they participate exclusively as partners, which is typical for advocacy NGOs that contribute institutional legitimacy and community access rather than research infrastructure. Despite only two projects, they engaged with 28 different partners across 13 countries, suggesting they are placed in large, multi-stakeholder research consortia rather than tight bilateral partnerships. Working with them means gaining a credible civil society voice and access to Portuguese poverty and migration communities, not technical research capacity.

REAPN has built a broad European network through just two projects — 28 consortium partners across 13 countries — reflecting their placement in large society-pillar consortia. Their network is geographically diverse across Europe, consistent with the EU-wide scope of anti-poverty and migration policy research.

What sets them apart

As Portugal's designated national network within the European Anti-Poverty Network structure, REAPN carries an institutional legitimacy that independent research groups cannot replicate — they are a recognized civil society voice in EU social policy debates, not simply a consultancy. For consortia that need Southern European civil society representation, community-level data access, or credible advocacy credentials in poverty and migration contexts, REAPN fills a role that academic partners rarely can. Their combination of policy proximity, community rootedness, and now media narrative expertise makes them a distinctive non-academic node in society-pillar projects.

Highlights from their portfolio

• OPPORTUNITIES
  Their largest project by funding (EUR 76,219), running through 2025, tackles the politically urgent topic of migration narrative framing using a sophisticated multi-method approach including social media analysis, art-based dissemination, and cross-talk experiments.
• RE-InVEST
  An early, foundational engagement in European social investment research that positioned REAPN as a civil society partner in the post-austerity policy debate, establishing their H2020 track record.