Kislov et al., 2017). The EMN's neutral approach can, in addition to facilitating access to data and engagement with some actors, make the network appear as a trustworthy knowledge broker with no agenda other than information exchange (Gluckman et al., 2021), which can be particularly important in a polarized field such as migration. Finally, with regard to academic research, Part 2.3 has shown that the EMN is mostly acting as a knowledge broker by linking academic researchers and other actors, or by disseminating academic work to its network members to increase visibility. However, due to the working methods and mandate of the EMN, there are limits to how much the network can broker academic research, especially when it comes to its outputs. However, some interviewees expressed an interest in strengthening the engagement between the network and academia. The EMN could potentially enhance its position as a knowledge broker and contribute to greater evidence engagement by fostering collaboration between different communities or ensuring that research questions and evidence production are aligned with the needs of policymakers and practitioners (e.g. Bielak et al., 2008). This could be achieved, for example, by the EMN using its wide network of well-established contacts to gain insight into the needs of practitioners and policymakers and to help academic researchers address the right research questions. In this context, the EMN could also use its capacity and expertise in organizing different types of events to organize specific workshops between policy actors/practitioners and researchers to ensure that the communities can understand each other and their needs. In addition, in order to facilitate relevant knowledge production, whenever a need for evidence arises among EMN network members that require a more in-depth, analytical perspective, it could be interesting to organize a "call for action" for researchers to research this topic, which could be supported by the NCPs (e.g. the NCP could play a supporting role in providing data and statistics as well as relevant contacts through its network, as mentioned by interviewee 23). However, there are also limitations to this approach, as policymakers often require very rapid input, which is difficult to reconcile with the timeframe of academic research (e.g. interviewees 8 and 11). Based on this, the following recommendations are proposed: Recommendations for the EMN in general 1. Cooperate with academic researchers to produce policy and practice-relevant outputs • The EMN could seek to engage with academic researchers at the national level to co-create relevant policy outputs. By leveraging the EMN's wide network and insights into policymakers and practitioners’ information needs, its network of stakeholders across Member States, and its data- 22