Bridging the Divide: Science-Policy Collaboration to Support the Uptake of Research by Policymakers

Migration has long brought benefits to origin and destination countries, enriching societies and supporting human development globally. However, migration is also beset with uncertainty and fear, making it susceptible to politicization and misinformation and often overshadowing the many benefits migration can bring. Rigorous research, data and analysis are key to enhancing policy officials’ understanding of migration as a complex phenomenon, including by drawing lessons from different geographies and geopolitical contexts. The International Organization for Migration’s (IOM) flagship World Migration Report provides balanced, relevant and evidence-based migration research and data spanning the globe. Published biennially, the report meets the highest research standards, and garners interest among scholars, media and States globally. In this new collaboration between Geneva Science-Policy Interface (GSPI), IOM and the Graduate Institute, research into how policy officials access migration research and the ways in which they utilize research findings has been undertaken to guide the development of an interactive, digital toolkit tailored for busy policy officers based upon contents of the report. Freely available online, the toolkit improves accessibility of migration research analysis, and enables policy officers to access content for their specific needs, enabling them to quickly access digestible migration data and trends, use filters to zoom into the geographical and thematic areas they are working on, and easily download graphs and data visualizations.