After months of hard work and overcoming different obstacles, the DRIM Consortium is glad to present the beta version of the main output of the project DRIM: the Danube Compass information tool, which can be visited at: www.danubecompass.org. The beta version is still a work in progress and it is the version used to implement the activities of the Pilot Action, a key part of the project in which we are able to test “in situ” the Danube Compass, make a profound analysis and offer solutions to the presented challenges. The Pilot Actions will enable the partnership to increase the quality of the information tool and enable adjustments for its use in transnational context. The partners from Austria, Croatia, Germany and Slovenia – currently developing Pilot Actions – have finished the digital input in English and they are working to add the local languages as well. Shortly, the Danube Compass will be also avaialble for the Czech Republic, Hungary, Serbia and Slovakia.

The Pilot Actions’ phase takes place between November 2017 and February 2018, which is the period when partners in charge (Caritas Academy of Diocese Graz-Seckau (Austria); Employment Service of Slovenia (Slovenia); Centre for Peace Studies (Croatia) and the City of Munich (Germany) – Department of Labour and Economic Development, Local Employment and Qualification Policy) are implementing manifold activities involving different target groups, in order to collect concrete feedback, suggestions and recommendations to improve the Danube Compass. Based on these analyses and reviews by the Consortium the quality, usability and effectiveness of the information tool will be significantly improved.

Simultaneously, the Pilot Actions are being monitored and reviewed by Project Partners, who have the chance to visit at least two activities organized by two different Project Partners. The reviewing partners will be able to give feedback on the implementation of the activities and also to test the local Danube Compass. These activities are meant to evaluate the usability and effectiveness of the info-tool and enable the Project Partners to discover different challenges that need to be addressed in order to launch a useful info-tool.

This information will also become a crucial part of the project because it will be used to produce a detailed “How to” handbook, in which the needed steps to gather, select, edit and present the most important information on migrants’ economic integration will be described. The handbook will be available for other interested institutions and organizations outside the partnership in order to be able to understand and replicate the processes used to create the Danube Compass.