Immigration is one of the most important public policy issues in the UK. It has, over the past ten years, consistently ranked among the top issues of concern to the British public. The current Government has embarked on a series of significant immigration policy changes which have generated heated public and policy debates as well as extensive media coverage. Public debates and media coverage of migration, both in the UK and the EU, are often highly polarised and based on assertions and opinions rather than facts and evidence. There is widespread confusion about what we know and don't know about the scale and impacts of migration in the UK. More transparent and accessible data and analysis are needed to help generate a more evidence-based debate and strengthen policy-making. Different people and organisations will always legitimately disagree about the goals of immigration policy - but it is clearly desirable to aim for more clarity, transparency and agreement in the evidence base underlying the discussions. COMPAS has a successful track record at engaging users of its research and is constantly seeking to strengthen its user engagement and impact on public and policy debates. With its record for high quality academic research and policy expertise, the Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS) is well placed to play a more significant role within the UK's migration debate. Recognising the importance of this we recently established The Migration Observatory, a new flagship project specifically aimed at informing public debate and policy on international migration in the UK. The proposed project would further develop and strengthen the impact of the user engagement activities of the Migration Observatory and COMPAS. The proposed activities will make data and analysis more accessible to key users, such as Government officials, private business and non-governmental organisations, as well as the general public. The project will inform and engage with media and public debates on migration and public policy; strengthen policy-making by providing more transparency and clarity about the evidence base; enable a wide range of users, particularly government officials and the private sector, to easily access and use our charts, maps and analysis for more evidence-based contributions to the UK's migration debate; and help us to establish enduring partnerships with key migration data providers and users. To achieve these aims, the project includes a range of user engagement activities: - Web functionality: enhanced functionality of interactive charts and maps (including Census 2010 data available next year); and increased numbers of new videos and podcasts on key migration issues; - Policy and User Events: policy briefings and user workshops (again based on the upcoming Census results); the extension of COMPAS Breakfast Briefings series; and a high level symposium on Migration Impacts over the last 10 years. - Media monitoring: this will enhance our ability to track and understand public discourse around migration, with a view to extending the impact we have in this field; - Knowledge Exchange visits: between staff at COMPAS, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and the Home Office This portfolio of activities is designed to maximise the impact of COMPAS' existing research, as well as position us as a focal point for analysis of the forthcoming Census 2011 results on migration.

The Rising from the Depths network will identify how the tangible submerged and coastal Marine Cultural Heritage (MCH) of Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique and Madagascar, and its associated intangible aspects, can stimulate, ethical, inclusive and sustainable growth in the region. The multidisciplinary project team (experienced in challenge-led research and KE in ODA environments) will determine ways in which MCH can directly benefit East African communities and local economies, building identity, stimulating alternative sources of income (reducing poverty), and enhancing the value and impact of overseas aid in the maritime sector. East Africa is undergoing a period of profound change as the economy of the region gains momentum, driven by changing internal dynamics and by external interests. The region's maritime zone is central to these developments with offshore exploration for oil and gas deposits driving investment, coupled with major financing of new and established ports to facilitate trade with the Gulf countries. In addition to aid and investment from both the UK and other western governments, China and Saudi Arabia are funding major infrastructural and development projects across the region. While these developments have the potential to realise short-term economic, developmental and employment benefits, there has been little consideration of the impact of this work on the region's submerged and coastal heritage. Nascent maritime research in East Africa is just beginning to reveal the extent of maritime cultures and traditions across the region as well as the evidence for wider maritime activity that connected this coast to the broader Indian Ocean region. The sea in East Africa is a connector, a facilitator of communications, a supplier of resources that sustains life and an environment that is rooted in the belief systems of coastal peoples. For millennia this coast has been embedded within broader political and socio-economic domains, and witness to multiple migrations, invasions and trade activity. Its port towns and cities were intrinsically connected to a wider mercantile maritime world, ensuring it became one of the most culturally dynamic and diverse regions throughout history. It was, and continues to be, a region of continuous transformation and subject to a variety of anthropogenic and natural drivers of change. Development agreements very rarely take account of cultural heritage even though access to it is considered a fundamental human right. East African counties currently have little capacity to protect or explore their rich maritime heritage and, as a result, the socio-economic potential of MCH has yet to be realised. Worse, while the submerged resource is being impacted by marine exploitation, commercial salvage and offshore industry, the coastal resource is being threatened by building and development work as well as climatic and environmental change and even some green-energy projects. MCH is a fragile and finite resource, which once destroyed can never be recovered. This project will establish and maintain a transboundary and cross-sector network of arts and humanities-led researchers, government officers, scientists, policy makers, UN officials, NGOs, ICT professionals and specialists working in heritage, infrastructure and the offshore industry, to consider in what ways MCH can create long-lasting social, economic and cultural benefits in the region. The project will identify new opportunities and methodologies for arts and humanities research in an aid context and add value to coastal infrastructure and offshore development projects. Key mechanisms of engagement will be through the co-production of a Research and KE Framework, Innovation Projects and KE activities. The nations of coastal East Africa have aspirations to transform themselves into a thriving maritime gateway of trade and investment. The past has an active role in not only informing this development but in helping drive it.