On 9th and 10th May 2022, the first transnational project meeting of the MUST-a-Lab project took place in Modena (Italy), hosted by the Municipality of Modena in the historical city hall for two fruitful working days.
The MUlti-STakeholder Labs for migrants and stakeholders: MUST-a-Lab project, launched in January 2022, aims at creating a systemic and long-term involvement of migrants and asylum seekers in six European municipalities through the establishment of Policy Labs. In this context, different types of local stakeholders – e.g. policy stakeholders, grassroots stakeholders, and migrant stakeholders – are brought together to discuss and improve existing local policies and integration strategies.
The project, co-funded by the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF) of the European Commission, is implemented by a European partnership coordinated by the City of Mechelen (Belgium) and involving, along with the Sanremo Institute, the City of Modena (Italy), the City of Fuenlabrada (Spain), the Public Benefit Organization of the Municipality of Livadia (K.E.DH.L.) (Greece), the District Council of the 7th District of Vienna (BV 7) (Austria), the City of Pont-de-Claix (France), the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (UNIMORE) (Italy), Karel de Grote Hogeschool (Belgium) and the Fondation des Régions Européennes pour la Recherche, l’Education, et la Formation (FREREF) (France).
During its meeting in Modena, the partnership discussed the activities carried out in the first five months of project implementation and started to organise the preparatory activities for the establishment of the Policy Labs, to be officially developed in the second year (2023). The MUST-a-Lab partners will be meeting again for a second on-site project meeting in Spain in November, this time hosted by the municipality of Fuenlabrada.