On 28 October, the PROTEMO consortium invited representatives of civil society organisations and adminitsrations to its first online stakeholder meeting. The objective was to gather insights and receive feedback on the research design and to engage mutual learning from stakeholders experienced with surveys.

After a round of introduction and a brief overview of PROTEMO and its aims, Peter Starke (SDU) presented general questions on emotions in protective policies to stakeholders, asking them to share their experiences on protective policies, emotions, and preferences on protection. Then, the audience was split into two groups: the first group, led by Tereza Capelos (US) and Beatriz Carbone (USAAR), was posed questions regarding demands for protective policies, emotions, and preferences on protection, the second group, led by Donatella Bonansinga (US) and Moshe Maor (RU), was asked to give recommendations about the inclusion of individuals' emotional needs into policies. As a third task, participants were presented the draft survey and asked to give their feedback and recommendations on specific items and the format of questions. Besides concerns about the overall length, stakeholders gave very valuable contributions to specific wordings as well as to the broader survey design.

The insights and the feedback given by stakeholders will be incorporated in PROTEMO‘s first wave of the survey that will be carried out in 11 countries at the beginning of 2025. Their contribution is valuable and essential to bridge the gap between academia and the worlds of politics, public administration, and civil society.

For more information on the outcomes of this first stakeholder involvement, please read the booklet. In it, we summarize the data collected through two focus groups with reputed stakeholders working in different areas and projects aimed to either shed light on protective policies or to design and implement projects and interventions that enhance the protection of target groups.

PROTEMO will continue its collaboration with and co-learning from its stakeholders in various online and offline formats in 2025 and 2026.