Project Info
| Acronym | MIICT |
|---|---|
| Title | ICT Enabled Public Services for Migration |
| Duration | 36 Months |
| GA Number | 822380 |
| Topic ID | DT-MIGRATION-06-2018-2019 |
| Call | Addressing the challenge of migrant integration through ICT-enabled solutions |
| Funding Scheme | H2020 |
| Project Type | IA-Innovation Action |
Project Background
Inroduction
Previous research has established that issues of integration, discrimination, employment (and unemployment), incapacity support and education rank highly among migrants of varying demographics; including different age groups, genders, education levels and immigration status. Factors such as autonomy, perception, culture and history, as well as institutional constraints shape the dynamics and experiences of migrants and highlight the complexity of the migration process. This complexity is also said to indicate diversity in the migration and integration process as a result of the almost infinite combination of factors that may impact upon migrants’ experiences; influenced by the relationships between the economic, social, political and cultural factors that exist across a given juncture.
Using a co-design approach, MIICT will design, develop and deploy bespoke solutions that address; a) the management of migrant integration, b) the customisation of services to match migrants’ needs, and c) the need for sustained and improved inclusion of migrants. This evidence-based and inclusive software solution aims to improve labour market access, matching individuals with jobs and development opportunities based upon their specific and unique contexts.
MIICT (ICT Enabled Services for Migration) was conceived with the goal of designing, developing and deploying tools that address the challenge of migrant integration. In service of this goal, the project undertakes to co-create improved ICT-enabled services with migrants, refugees, public sector services, NGOs (Non-Governmental-Organisations) and other interest groups.
By involving research-users at the centre of our approach we address the need to improve and customise the interfaces used to access key public services so that they better address the requirements of migrants and refugees. To achieve this MIICT has undertaken the development of a system to capture the specific socio-cultural, economic and legal contexts of migrants; information that can be shared with public authorities.
Project Objectives
Six Objectives
MIICT will address the following specific objectives:
Objective 1: Co-design ICTs to assist in the integration of refugee and migrant populations through the provision of customised access to key public services
Objective 2: Develop an adaptive ‘plug-and-play’ integration framework for the incorporation of new ICTs into existing public service infrastructure
Objective 3: Prove migrant integration management by providing a job and skills matching decision support tool
Objective 4: Deepen societal understanding of the factors that impact upon refugee and migrant populations’ ability to access key public services
Objective 5: Introduce a repeatable and proven open consolidated methodology for co-designing ICTs for public sector service transformation
Objective 6: Integrate, demonstrate and rigorously test a number of co-designed ICTs that streamline access to public services and ease the integration of refugee communities
Project Methodology
Project Phases
The project will take place in three broad phases; INSPIRATION, IDEATION and IMPLEMENTATION, within the wider concept of a human-centred design approach that aims to put the project’s implicated actors at the centre of the design and development process, unleashing the creativity of the consortiums multidisciplinary experts to deliver tangible, applied and innovative solutions. MIICT will be implemented across three primary pilot locations during the project; Cyprus, Spain and Italy, using different public services as use cases in each location.
Inspiration
The INSPIRATION phase is concerned with eliciting understand of the community’s needs. This includes eliciting information around challenges faced from different groups independently. A variety of qualitative methods will be used, including questionnaires, focus groups and interviews.
Ideation
The IDEATION phase will conduct a series of co-design and co-creation sessions in each of the three pilot locations (CYPRUS, ITALY and SPAIN) to design and create solutions with the project’s stakeholder actors. Different approaches will be used such as Cognitive and Context Mapping and Storyboarding and paper-based prototypes will be developed.
Implementation
In the IMPLEMENTATION phase, the paper-based prototypes developed will be realised into fully functional live prototypes ready for testing and sustained pilot.
The development process will run iteratively throughout these phases to ensure improvement are integrated based on participant feedback.
Through this methodology MIICT hopes to ingrain public authorities, public service providers, interest groups and migrants, including refugees and asylum seekers in the design of new systems that enable the more inclusive integration of migrants into the social and economic structures of host countries.
Project Outputs
Main Outputs
MIICT has three main outputs:
ICT services
A set of ICT enabled services that will improve refugee and migrant populations’ access to key public services, including healthcare, welfare and employment.
Integration Framework
An integration framework that will facilitate the seamless integration of heterogeneous services within the existing infrastructures of public services providing APIs for the ‘plug in and play’ of new ICT modules thus providing and supporting the long-term viability of the MIICT solutions.
Bi-Lingual Web-based Platform
A bi-lingual web-based platform that consists of a database and intelligent analytics system that captures the specific socio-cultural, economic and legal contexts of migrants that is shared with public authorities. The platform will enable effect management of migrant’s’ integration into the EU labour market by providing means to better understand individual contexts, allowing individuals to seek opportunities for skills development and employment and enabling public authorities to automatically match their access to services such as education, welfare, employment and healthcare in host countries.
Project Impacts
Overal Impacts
MIICT overall expected project impacts are:
Enhancing identification and inclusion of migrants
Facilitating the efforts of public administrations at EU, national and local levels to manage the integration of migrants
Facilitating communication with migrants and their access to services such as community language teaching, education, training, employment, welfare and healthcare systems within the host communities
About MIICT
MIICT (ICT Enabled Services for Migration) was conceived with the goal of designing, developing and deploying tools that address the challenge of migrant integration. In service of this goal, the project undertakes to co-create improved ICT-enabled services with migrants, refugees, public sector services, NGOs (Non-Governmental-Organisations) and other interest groups. By involving research-users at the centre of our approach we address the need to improve and customise the interfaces used to access key public services so that they better address the requirements of migrants and refugees.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Coordination & Research and Innovation Action under Grant Agreement No 822380.
Project Office
CENTRIC - Centre of Excellence in Terrorism, Resilience, Intelligence and Organised Crime Research
Cantor Building Howard Street, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, S1 1WB, United Kingdom
centric@shu.ac.uk