“I see that [our work] is actually targeted towards practitioners and policymakers [...] people who are very familiar with the lingo aspects or with the practice or with the monitored, so they are the source of the data [...]” (interviewee 14). Nevertheless, there are ways in which academic research can be incorporated into the work of the EMN. For example, academic researchers or research institutions may be part of the NCP's national network (European Commission, n.d.b). NCPs also refer to academic publications in some EMN outputs such as the Annual Migration Report (e.g., interviewee 5). In addition, academics will be invited to EMN events and conferences (e.g., interviewee 14), and NCPs may collaborate with universities or research institutions or commission research on specific topics (e.g., interviewee 23). Finally, one NCP member mentioned that they occasionally share academic work among their network members to increase their visibility or share the results of research with the wider EMN network to increase the visibility of the research (interviewee 5) In this way, the EMN can act as an intermediary between the academic community and other audiences. One NCP member, who has worked as a practitioner and in academia, highlighted the importance of finding proactive ways to bridge between academic research and practitioners and policymakers, and points out how the EMN can take on this role: “Having this bridge or middleman […] between academia and practitioners is very much needed and unfortunately, so far, there has not been an actor identified […] who can fill in this gap. And I think that naturally the EMN really filled up this gap and can play a key role in furthering the dialogue between practitioners and academics. […] It can be through getting to know the needs of academics […] and the needs and state of play of practitioners, but also through joint conferences or discussions or round tables […] or panel discussions, where those needs might be very well addressed” (interviewee 12). In addition, another NCP member explained how the EMN can bridge between the academic and policy community. They do this, for instance, by providing data and statistics or other information collected by the EMN to researchers (interviewee 23). In addition, this interviewee stressed the important role the EMN can play in supporting academic research through its large network of contacts, for instance, to get in touch with research environments or government officials in other EMN Member Countries. In this regard, they also highlight the importance of easy-going exchange based on interpersonal connections, elaborated on in Part 2.1. “It has been so valuable [for researchers] to contact people through the network […] so that our researcher can, for example, get access to interview someone in that organization. We've just done that on some research we're doing on Ukraine, and I contacted other countries and they've been super helpful and because we're quite a tight network and meet regularly. So, I think there are a lot of informal aspects of the network that [are] really helpful” (interviewee 23). 19