This section covers the final reporting period and presents a general overview of the project results and their exploitation and dissemination. EU Border Care lasted for an extra year than originally planned, thanks to an extension granted by the ERC in the spring of 2020, when the COVID-19 health emergency was quickly proving to bring many planned research and dissemination activities to a halt. This extension, together with the ERC's remarkable support and flexibility, enabled me to veer the project research objectives in the new, unexpected direction of the pandemic's effects on maternity care in EU Border Care's project countries, with a special focus on Italy. I was able to hire a talented and dynamic postdoctoral researcher to focus on the latter topic, conducting research online and in the field, when conditions permitted. Further, ongoing activities such as data analysis, publications and dissemination activities with other field sites, and involving past project team members, continued, thus attesting the strength of the professional and personal bonds established within EU Border Care's team throughout the years. Whereas, regrettably, some strategically significant dissemination and return activities which had been planned for 2020, such as a special multi-media exhibit and workshop in the foyer of the ERCEA in Brussels (planned May 2020), a short documentary on Lampedusan midwifery and motherhood (planned filming in March 2020) and policy returns in all field sites (June 2020) had to be abandoned, some welcome exposure came in particular thanks to the publication in French and Italian of Sandrine Martin's comic entitled 'Chez too' ('A casa'), based on the project ERCcOMICS collaboration, from March 2021 onwards (and ongoing). I have detailed all our most recent research and dissemination activities in the attached documentation - I do however wish to stress that overall, EU Border Care, represents in my view, a very good example of the ERC's focus on 'high-risk, high-gain' focus. The project was designed and planned following extensive discussions with experts who could testify a rise of pregnant crossings from anecdotal evidence in 2014 - and yet as 2015 unfolded, the hypothesis proved to be quantifiably true, beyond expectations. My team was able to document first hand the specific demographics and challenges of pregnant migrants and their families across the WPs, identifying specificities and commonalities in both patient and frontline service experiences of these medical encounters int he midst of the so-called 'crisis of migration' and its aftermath. The project's main argument rested on the need to fill a gap both in data and in analysis, pushing for an increased awareness of the gender dimension of international migration, and of the challenges met by frontline care services in European borderlands. More certainly needs to be done, but I am proud of the attention, interest and inspiration the project has generated among early-career and established researchers, as well as among activists and frontline workers. The local support from stakeholders and gatekeepers the project team members received across all project countries attests to the enthusiasm with which both patients and frontline workers responded, observing it was high time someone gave them a voice and documented their work and experiences. I am hopeful the project has laid empirical and epistemological foundations for more research to be conducted on this urgent, timely and important subject.
