Two major research projects are currently linked to the GCE: BLACK SEA and PRIME. The BLACK SEA project deals with transcultural contact zones in the Black Sea region and was launched by the Center in 2016. Under the umbrella of this network project, various individual studies have been initiated in recent years that have dealt with the comparative description and analysis of transcultural contact zones in the Black Sea region. In this context, not only Russian culture in eastern Ukraine plays an important role, but also Polish culture in Galicia, Romanian culture in Bukovina or Hungarian culture in Transcarpathia.

The project PRIME works on national institutions and European policies on irregular migrants. European countries tend to cluster around various types of labour markets and welfare states, and these different "institutional models" are associated with different economic and social outcomes for citizens and migrants. The EU-funded PRIME project will study how variations in national institutions, and the interests with which they are associated, shape the rights and conditions of irregular migrants in law, policy and practice across EU Member States.