CROSS-ACCESS – Inclusive Systems Transformation for Migrants with Disabilities

CROSS-ACCESS is a values-driven interdisciplinary network advancing research and innovation at the intersection of migration, disability, and systems transformation. Its core mission is to reshape how health, education, and legal systems across diverse global contexts respond to the complex needs of migrants with disabilities—particularly those navigating irregular pathways, protracted displacement, or fragmented care environments.

The network draws on world-class expertise in disability law and policy, global health systems, inclusive education, and participatory research. It integrates knowledge of CRPD implementation, structural determinants of health, comparative legal reform, and community-engaged pedagogies to develop scalable, rights-based models of access. It will also look at international instruments for migrants and asylum seekers, including the Global Compact for Migration, the 1952 Refugee Convention, and the Platforom on Disaster Displacement, reviewing principles from the UN Network on Migration, and ILO labour protection principles. Active across Europe, Asia, and Africa, its members bring extensive experience in both high- and low-resource settings, contributing transnational insights into institutional reform.

CROSS-ACCESS prioritises equity, lived experience, and system-level accountability. Through participatory co-design, the network involves OPDs, migrants and affected communities directly in shaping research, tools, and policy recommendations. It will produce a suite of integrated outputs, including legal capacity frameworks, cross-border health continuity tools, inclusive curriculum prototypes, and open-access knowledge platforms adaptable across jurisdictions.

This network is not only interdisciplinary but intersectoral, facilitating collaboration among legal scholars, public health experts, social workers, educators, humanitarian workers and people with disabilities. It will launch joint research initiatives, policy dialogues, and capacity-building activities to influence national and European reform agendas. The design includes structured pathways for expansion, inviting new teams from the ENLIGHT alliance and beyond to contribute to a platform for global engagement.

By bridging global health, global education, and social justice through grounded, participatory innovation, CROSS-ACCESS will create lasting infrastructures for inclusion, equity, and dignity—within and beyond the European research landscape.



Network Partners:

Comenius University Bratislava (Dr. Pavol Kopinec, Faculty of Education)

University of Galway (Dr. Una Murray, Geography College of Arts, Social Sciences and Celtic Studies)

University of Göttingen (Dr. Mariza Avgeri, Dr. Reza Bayat, Centre for Global Migration Studies (CeMig))

Uppsala University (Dr. Soorej Jose Puthoopparambil, Global health and migration Unit, Dept. of Women’s & Children’s health)