Better Evidence Through Collaboration
Complex problems such as domestic violence, gender-based violence and discrimination cannot be understood—or addressed—within a single discipline.
VIASTOP works with universities, researchers, public authorities, law-enforcement and justice professionals, specialist services, civil society organisations and European networks to connect academic knowledge with frontline experience.
Our role is often to provide the bridge between research and real-world practice: helping identify relevant research questions, facilitating engagement with professionals and communities, contributing practice-based expertise and translating findings into interventions that can be used in everyday settings.
What VIASTOP Brings to Research Partnerships
Frontline Expertise
Our direct work with victims and survivors and people who use violence provides insight into the realities behind research questions.
This enables VIASTOP to contribute to research design from a practitioner perspective and helps ensure that projects remain relevant to the people and professionals they are intended to support.
Access to Professional Networks
Our cooperation with police, prosecutors, justice professionals, social services, educators and other frontline practitioners can support multidisciplinary research and professional engagement.
Where participation in research involves vulnerable populations, access must always be governed by appropriate ethical, safeguarding, confidentiality and data-protection procedures.
Applied Research
We are particularly interested in research that can lead to practical improvements.
This may include the development or evaluation of:
Risk assessment tools · Perpetrator interventions · Victim-support models · Multi-agency responses · Prevention programmes · Professional training · Safeguarding approaches · Policy recommendations
Academic Collaboration
VIASTOP has collaborated with researchers and academic institutions in Greece and internationally and contributes to the exchange of knowledge between researchers and frontline practitioners.
Our organisation also provides opportunities for academic engagement through student placements and practice-based learning, helping emerging professionals understand violence intervention within real service environments.
This relationship works in both directions: academic research strengthens our practice, while frontline experience helps identify questions requiring further investigation.
European Collaboration
Participation in European programmes enables VIASTOP to work with partners across different countries, disciplines and institutional systems.
Through projects such as EXODUS and RAISE, we contribute specialist knowledge from the Greek context while learning from approaches developed elsewhere in Europe.
This exchange is particularly valuable because violence occurs within different legal, cultural, social and institutional environments. Cross-national collaboration allows partners to identify both common challenges and context-specific responses.
Research Ethics & Safeguarding
Research concerning violence requires particular care.
People participating in research may have experienced trauma, abuse, discrimination or continuing risk. Research methods must therefore protect participants rather than inadvertently reproduce harm.
VIASTOP promotes research approaches based on:
Informed consent · Confidentiality · Data protection · Trauma-informed engagement · Child safeguarding · Do-no-harm principles · Appropriate referral pathways
Participation should be voluntary, meaningful and based on clear information about how data will be collected and used.
From Local Evidence to European Knowledge
VIASTOP is based in Eastern Macedonia and Thrace, a region that offers an important perspective for European research.
Border and rural communities, migration, geographic isolation, socioeconomic inequality and differences in access to specialised services can create experiences that are insufficiently represented when research concentrates predominantly on large urban populations.
We therefore seek to ensure that regional and underserved communities are represented within national and European evidence.
Partner With VIASTOP
We welcome collaboration on national and European research addressing:
Domestic & Gender-Based Violence · Victim & Survivor Support · Perpetrator Intervention · Risk Assessment & Management · Femicide & Lethal Violence · Coercive Control & Stalking · Child Safeguarding · Sexual Violence · Workplace Harassment · Migration & Violence · Gender Equality & Human Rights
VIASTOP can contribute across the research lifecycle:
CONCEPT & DESIGN → FIELDWORK → PROFESSIONAL & COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT → ANALYSIS → TOOL DEVELOPMENT → PILOTING → DISSEMINATION → POLICY & PRACTICE
We believe the strongest research partnerships connect academic rigour with the realities of practice—and ensure that evidence ultimately improves people’s lives.
CTA: Partner With Us
Secondary CTA: Contact Our Research Team