Back to Contents Step 3: Training session for Asylos volunteers Asylos will source from its volunteer network a group of volunteer researchers for each report to conduct the COI desk research and to assist with interviewing stakeholders. Volunteer researchers will be fully briefed on the project purpose, design and research methodology. They will then be required to attend a zoom training session facilitated by Asylos Programme Manager(s) which will cover the following: • • • • • Advanced COI research techniques Conducting stakeholder interviews The nature and scope of the research gap that the report aims to address Any Home Office guidance and policy related to the topic How experts are instructed in the UK, including how to ensure experts are aware of guidelines for expert testimony in a UK court Step 4: COI Desk Research For each report, we will undertake a review of the publicly available COI. This desk research will be coordinated by Asylos’s UK Programme Manager(s), working with a team of volunteers. Before the research begins, Asylos will devise and commit to consulting an agreed list of sources from an agreed period of time. This list will be divided among the volunteers to consult and to submit any relevant findings which will be included in the final report. When any additional sources are identified in the desk research volunteers will record them alongside the initial list, and submit any relevant information. Once this list has been exhausted, each volunteer will also be designated several of the ToR and asked to do some final research on those topics to ensure that any further sources are identified and included. Research will be conducted in line with Asylos’s internal COI research training and handbook and adhering to accepted COI research standards, including elements of the EASO country of origin information report methodology (EASO, 2012), the ACCORD COI training manual (ACCORD, 2013) and the Common EU Guidelines for Processing COI (European Union, 2008). Researchers should consult these documents throughout the research process and training sessions with volunteers will reflect these standards. To support the collection of research data, researchers will submit their sources using a live Google doc. Step 5: Finalising ToR and drafting interview questions Once the researchers have submitted all of their sources, Asylos’s UK Programme Manager(s) will generate a report using Microsoft Word. Whilst editing the report, the Programme Manager(s) will finalise the ToR and arrange the findings according to the headings that were identified. Whilst doing so, the Programme Manager(s) should assess which topics do not seem to be adequately covered in existing COI and consider where expert evidence would be particularly helpful in order to fill these gaps, for example where there is a total absence of COI, a lack of corroborative COI or where there is contradictory COI. Once the gaps have been identified, Asylos’s Programme Manager(s) will draft a list of interview questions for stakeholders to send alongside the ToR for review. The interview questions will address the gaps identified and will be carefully phrased to generate the most accurate and useful answers. These will be approved by the project steering committee. Step 6: Identifying interviewees / stakeholders The aim is to identify stakeholders that have extensive professional experience or recently published credible research on the topic and those that have recently been in the country of research. 17. Appendices 146