digital iNtegrAteD system for the socIal support of migraNts and refugEes

Project Information

NADINE

Grant agreement ID: 822601

DOI 10.3030/822601

Closed project

EC signature date 5 November 2018

Start date 1 November 2018

End date 31 October 2021

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Europe In A Changing World - Inclusive, Innovative And Reflective Societies

Total cost € 4 953 131,25

EU contribution € 3 970 576,50

Coordinated by

SCRIPT & GO
France

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - NADINE (digital iNtegrAteD system for the socIal support of migraNts and refugEes)

Reporting period: 2019-11-01 to 2021-10-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

NADINE recognises that smooth access to employment is a key ingredient in the successful integration of migrants in their new societies.

Being an Innovation Action, the NADINE project aimed to achieve a specific set of scientific and technological objectives to implement a platform, which will eventually deliver a set of highly intelligent services.
The NADINE project has developed a smart platform able to assess migrants' skills and needs as well as the needs of host societies in order to provide smooth and intercultural labour integration, while in the same time resolve problems of the host societies in both migration population management and labour matching. The scientific output of the project advanced the state of the art in several domains from indirect skill assessment to novel clustering methodologies and data augmentation techniques. NADINE results goes beyond a simple migrants integration platform and introduce also novel solutions in the major problem of skills/needs matching through the tools that have been developed in the course of the project. Finally, all tools that have been developed have been thoroughly tested in 3 different sets of piloting phases that validated the results from both technical and end-user point of view.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Tools and processes implemented in WP1 allowed proper coordination, quality control, data management and monitoring of activities. This contributed to achieving the objectives, milestones and deliverables of the period within the foreseen timeframe and budget.
Dissemination and communication were achieved by planning activities, producing communication material, setting up communication channels and identifying the appropriate target audiences at national and EU level. Partners proceeded in discussing around market analysis, business modelling and exploitation plans. A particular focus was made on the pilots and the initial version of the NADINE platform, as well as attending as many relevant, European level dissemination events as possible during the reporting period. Several publications were also initiated. During the project’s second half and with more tangible results produced, there have been a significant increase in the number of peer-reviewed publications.


I - Work on users’ needs:

In WP2, the reports on the user requirements and use cases of the NADINE platform, as well as legal and ethical requirements were produced and guided technical partners when designing the platform components. The work on users’ needs was based on close cooperation with stakeholders at national levels. The description of the project’s initial and final system architecture was also issued.
WP3 mapped the existing assessment procedures, on the methodology for psychometric testing and evaluation of migrants’ skills, on framing 10 Universal Skills needed in the labour market, and on the existing barriers in social and labour market. Then structural updates, ethical updates and increase in the geographical reach of the tool allowed to identify new recommendations for the development of the NADINE platform.
In WP9, after an initial inception phase to ensure sound methodology and strategy, pilots were organised in 3 phases (Diver, Assisted and Real-Life). As this WP was based on exchanges with members of the public, it required special attention due to the containment measures linked to the COVID-19 global pandemic.

II - Technological work on the platform:

In WP4, data collection and analysis tools were completed and data sources covering vocational needs and information about public infrastructures were composed and downloaded. The Skill Assessment Questionnaires WebApp created, supports a variety of features requested by NGO partners Data collected from the pilots allowed to enhance the dataset and learning algorithms.
In WP5, a clustering algorithm using this prototype system was created and tested, achieving good results. Finally, Finally, the final version of the NADINE recommender has been developed and deployed along with the administration recommender for infrastructure improvements and the Data analytics tools.
In WP6, the design of the e-portfolio structure has been defined, then built. It now has content in 6 languages and a mobile app for language training has been created supporting French and English. Furthermore, personalised skill training recommendations along with training content for 21 skills have been developed and translated to all NADINE languages.
In WP7, the interfaces’ structure has been defined, then built. It is now available in 6 languages. Moreover, an initial version of the administration companion has been created during the first year, and further developed and trained with an extended FAQ dataset during RP2. It now covers topics such as healthcare, asylum seeking, accommodation, education and employment in EU reception countries in 6 languages.
Finally, in WP8, the integration strategy along with integration plan and tool was first documented, before proceeding to the full integration of the first then second version of the platform. The platform has continuously been updated and maintained according to feedback received from the second and third pilots and the final version has been delivered.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

NADINE’s aim was to develop a novel way of integrating migrants and refugees through ICT-enabled solutions that will automatically adapt to the specificities of each person. The consortium agreed that one of the main enablers of migrants’ inclusion, in the host societies, is their ability to work. Taking this into account, the NADINE project has succeeded in creating an adaptable platform, able to: 1) Provide functionalities for hard and soft skill assessment, 2) dynamically create tailored training programs to adapt existing skills into host societies needed skills (skills shifting), 3) provide a digital companion that will suggest and assist the end-users through administrative tasks and 4) create a data lake available to public administration bodies for better organization.

NADINE combines ICT technology and tools with local knowledge in terms of inclusion for a positive impact on technology, society and economy:
-Impact the EU ICT technology: by delivering innovative ICT tools, platforms, serious games and data analytics processes for a) migrants and refugees identification, b) skill categorization and building, c) intelligent machine learning and data analytics technologies and d) jobs harvesting and matching.
-Impact the EU Economy: by providing a) ICT tools and platforms that support migrant integration in the labour market; b) connection of corporate social responsibility activities with local economy needs and c) better matching training and employment.
-Impact the EU Society: by accelerating real socio-economic integration of migrants, refugees and minorities in general and supports better rules and policies creation by providing to policy makers procedures, methodologies and tools for strategic policy design and implementation.

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