Three main topics addressed by the project are social responsibility of educational institutions, social innovation, and community development. The overall goal of the project is to transform higher education systems by deepening and broadening the scope of their community engagement. It also aims to enhance the role of higher education institutions (HEIs) in supporting societies across Europe and ‘ace’ the capacity of their staff to address societal challenges effectively, fostering a more inclusive and interconnected higher education system.

Community Engagement Guide fostering a culture of collaboration, and social responsibility within the HE sector will be developed within the project, as well as a dynamic alliance of more than 150 HE staffs, innovative digital platform and a guide to initiate collaboration. The consortium will also provide project’s target groups with a practical toolkit consisting of 50 instruments & 50 best practices to develop effective engagement strategies, as well as with a 3-day Empowerment Training Program following a hackathon format and training guide replicable for HEIs to build the capacity of their community-engaged staff.

The project budget is 400,000 euro. It starts this autumn. On behalf of TUL, the work of the consortium is coordinated by the Director of the ICC - dr inż. Dorota Piotrowska, university professor. Partners in the project are University of Belgrade (Serbia), Technological University of the Shannon: Midlands Midwest (Ireland), University of Tartu (Estonia), European e-Learning Institute (Denmark), ACEEU GmbH (Germany).