Following the series of policy briefs elaborated by the B-Shapes project to support evidence-based policymaking and inclusive considerations for policymakers and those interested in the role of borders within the wider context of EU Cohesion policy and practice, we now present PB #9 Leaving No One Behind in Research Policy. This Policy Brief is based on media analyses and fieldwork, including interviews, focus groups, workshops and border walks, conducted with borderland populations at ten European borders. All analyses addressed how the border regional context shapes perceptions of European integration.
Borders Shaping Perceptions of European Societies (B-SHAPES) is a Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Action project that analyses how borders remain a key factor in shaping our understanding of societies. Eight European universities, one research institute, a national museum, a foundation, a political association, a consultancy, and an art collective have come together for three years[1]. The special border region focus promises new insights into how borders shape perceptions of societies, and how the story of borders can be told differently than from a purely national perspective.
B-SHAPES continuously summarises and disseminates key findings from the research in a way which can support an evidence-informed approach to policy debates. It thereby offers considerations for policymakers and those interested in the role of borders within the broader context of EU Cohesion policy and practice.
Research policy, including EU research policy, treats diversity and inclusion as integral to research quality, with a particular emphasis on gender equality. This approach rests on the assumption that social identities and cleavages shape the lived experience and, therefore, research outcomes. While this has clear merits, it risks privileging predefined categories at the expense of context-specific forms of difference and belonging. The B-SHAPES project starts from the premise that in border regions, identities and experiences are shaped not only by predefined social categories but also by spatial and relational factors that derive from everyday border practices.
All analyses addressed how the border regional context shapes perceptions of European integration. Reflecting on the research process, we found that achieving gender-balanced participation is often constrained by the structure of the studied populations and by institutional and data-related barriers. While targeted recruitment and careful reporting practices can mitigate some imbalances, the project found no systematic gender-based differences in how borders and Europe were narrated. More broadly, B-SHAPES demonstrates that borderland identities frequently cut across standard demographic categories. Narrative and arts-based methods allowed participants to articulate their own positionalities, revealing perspectives often absent from media, heritage and policy narratives. At the same time, access to certain groups remains structurally limited, risking the reproduction of existing exclusions.
Based on these findings, this Policy Brief recommends that research policy move beyond a narrow focus on predefined social cleavages. Funders should allow applicants to justify which identities and distinctions are locally salient, support narrative and participatory methods, and recognise cross-border contexts as sites of inquiry in their own right rather than merely binational settings. Evaluation criteria should acknowledge structural access barriers and avoid penalising researchers for constraints beyond their control. Finally, future funding calls should explicitly address remaining knowledge gaps by inviting bottom-up research on hard-to-reach borderland populations and by encouraging context-sensitive approaches that better reflect how belonging and identity are experienced in Europe’s border regions.
Read the entire B-Shapes Policy Brief #9 here
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[1] The Centre of Border Region Studies at the University of Southern Denmark (SDU) coordinates B-SHAPES. Other partners in the consortium are: Brunel University London, Halmstad University, University of Oulu, University of Wroclaw, University of Strasbourg, ELTE University in Budapest, Technical University of Liberec in the Czech Republic, EURAC Research, the Bulgarian Museum of National History, the Lungomare artists’ collective in South Tyrol (Italy), the Association of European Border Regions (AEBR/AGEG/ARFE), KREATUS Consultancy, and the European Network Remembrance and Solidary Foundation.
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