Community Engagement

Welcome to Community Engagement site within Ulysseus European University – a dynamic space where collaboration beyond academia drives meaningful societal impact!

At Ulysseus, Community Engagement reflects how universities connect with external communities, including citizens, NGOs, public authorities, and other societal actors. These connections contribute to the broader cultural, social, and economic development—also known as the Third Mission of universities. By fostering dialogue between academia, industry, and society, Ulysseus addresses real-world challenges and responds to pressing societal needs. Students and academic staff are encouraged to actively participate in and lead community engagement initiatives, turning knowledge into action and impact.

Across the alliance, each Innovation Hub adopts a place-based approach, implementing tailored engagement models that reflect local contexts while contributing to a shared European vision.
Together, we are building bridges between knowledge and society—empowering communities and shaping a more connected future.

Learn more!

Our initiatives

This is a dynamic space where collaboration beyond academia drives meaningful societal impact! Browse our initiatives with Living Labs, Open Classes, Science Shops, Challenge-based activities, Ulysseus Miles and much more.

Living Labs

Living Labs are open innovation ecosystems, integrated within Ulysseus Innovation Hubs, where research and innovation take place in real-life environments rather than isolated laboratory settings. By embracing a systematic co-creation approach, they place citizens and end-users at the centre of the process, ensuring that solutions are not only innovative but also closely aligned with real-world needs. Through this collaborative and adaptive methodology, Living Labs bring together diverse perspectives and continuously evolve to respond to changing challenges and opportunities.

Join us in shaping solutions that are grounded in reality, driven by collaboration, and designed to make a lasting impact.

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Experiential Learning on Societal Challenges

Authentic Learning through real-world challenges is a cornerstone of Ulysseus’ innovative pedagogy. By engaging students in meaningful, practice-oriented experiences, this approach strengthens critical thinking, collaboration, and innovation. It bridges the gap between theory and practice through complex problem-solving tasks that mirror professional environments. Across the alliance, a range of challenge-based initiatives bring this approach to life. One example is Entre Camp, a five-day intensive entrepreneurship training programme which combines agile methodologies such as Design Thinking with challenge-based learning, offering students hands-on experience in tackling real-world problems.

At the same time, these authentic learning environments create valuable opportunities for Ulysseus academic staff to further develop and update their professional competences, ensuring teaching remains aligned with evolving societal and industry needs.

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Science Shops

Science Shops are a model of the public engagement with research and innovation practices. They aim to respond to community organisations’ or other stakeholders’ needs and requests through a participative and co-creative processes, thus making the research and innovation knowledge, services and products more relevant for the society as a whole. It enables citizens, NGOs, and public organisations to access scientific knowledge, often through student projects or applied research. By fostering collaboration between academia and society, Science Shops support evidence-based solutions, promote socially relevant research, and provide students with valuable hands-on learning experiences while addressing local and societal challenges.

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Two speakers in the Open Class of Ecity Sevilla in February 2026

Open Classes

Open Classes are designed as dynamic formats for learning and knowledge exchange in collaboration with city and regional authorities. Closely linked to the themes of the Innovation Hubs, these initiatives promote open science and innovation by creating focused, international dialogue around pressing societal challenges. Open Classes enable rapid knowledge transfer, with outcomes that can inform public sector decision-making and policy development. Notable examples include sessions on smart cities, protection of minors in the digital environment, robotics and heritage, among others.

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Ulysseus Miles

Ulysseus Miles is a pilot programme designed to recognise, value and reward the active engagement of students and staff across the Ulysseus Alliance. More than a points system, Ulysseus Miles is launched to strengthen our shared sense of belonging and celebrate the people who make our community so vibrant and dynamic! Collection of miles is done based on a commonly agreed scale while rewards are offered in line with each partner university’s policies. Learn more how you can earn miles and how you can convert them into attractive rewards. Become an Ulysseus walker!

About Ulysseus Miles

Community Engagement in Action

This section includes some examples of community engagement initiatives of Ulysseus.

Living Lab of Ageing & Well-being

Living Lab of Ageing & Well-being

The Ulysseus Living Lab in Nice is part of the Innovation Hub of Ageing and Wellbeing of Université Cote D'Azur and offers a unique environment where silver economy initiatives can grow into long-lasting solutions. With the support of a community of over 200 partner patients and 400 experienced healthcare professionals, researchers, and experts, users from academic or industrial sector can develop ideas, proofs of concept, and knowledge with the guidance of a multidisciplinary team. The Lab enables testing of innovative prototypes, devices, or services in realistic settings such as apartments or doctor’s offices equipped with 4K cameras. These spaces allow for live interactions, focus groups, and debriefings, supported by feedback screens and control office monitoring. Beyond its dedicated facilities, the Living Lab also extends to third-party locations, including the St. Jean Health Center in Nice, ensuring that solutions can be tested and refined in diverse environments. The Hub provides also a business incubation programme Accelerating Longevity Innovations and Vitality Experiences (ALIVE) Start-up Programme, and is supporting several Ulysseus R&I thematic groups.
Living Lab of Socio-Ecological Sustainability

Living Lab of Socio-Ecological Sustainability

The Innovation Hub of Socio-ecological sustainability, based at the University of Münster, has a living lab titled “Making the Future Appealing!” where a real-world laboratory has been established in the rural Münsterland region to explore how Tecklenburg’s municipal sustainability strategy can be implemented in an inclusive way, with citizens imagining desirable futures and actively helping to shape them. Through different “building blocks for the future”, the lab aims to strengthen the region’s transformative resilience and fearful visions into optimist ones of the future. The hub has organised events to connect stakeholders, facilitate exchange and knowledge transfer, design courses, support matchmaking and help establish research groups and projects, with a strong focus on identifying and leveraging synergies. In research, it supports the emerging area “Exploring and Shaping Sustainability”. In 2025, the Innovation Hub team helped to set up and run R&I Groups on Food & Agroecology, Co-creation & Real-World Lab Design and Futurabilities. The Hub has been involved in Ulysseus research groups in the topic: REfuge Forests as Urban Guards against climate change and Agroecology and Sustainable Food System Transformation.
Students’ challenge-based Entre Camps

Students’ challenge-based Entre Camps

Ulysseus Entre Camp is a five-day intensive entrepreneurship programme that brings students from across the alliance together to tackle real-world challenges. Designed as a Blended Intensive Programme (BIP) and building on a prior online course, it combines agile methodologies such as Design Thinking with hands-on, challenge-based learning. Each edition focuses on a key societal theme—ranging from ageing and wellbeing (Nice 2024) to smart cities (Seville 2025) and cultural heritage (Genoa 2026). Working in teams and guided by academic staff, students develop practical solutions to challenges proposed by Ulysseus Innovation Hubs, gaining insight into both global issues and emerging business opportunities.

Challenge-based Collaborative Online Learning (COIL)

Challenge-based Collaborative Online Learning (COIL)

Ulysseus is advancing international collaboration in education through its seed funding scheme, which supports the development of Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) initiatives among partner universities. One recent project brought together the University of Montenegro and Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences to address a practical challenge: making the Maritime Museum in Kotor more appealing and accessible to Generation Z audiences. In 2025, students worked on solutions ranging from creative engagement strategies to digital tools and gamified experiences designed to enhance interaction with cultural heritage. COIL connects existing courses across institutions through virtual collaboration, fostering cross-cultural exchange without creating new programmes. To encourage wider participation, Ulysseus provides seed funding for joint course design and delivery, including support for travel and in-person meetings, enabling academic staff to co-create innovative learning experiences.
Cybersecurity Challenge Lab

Cybersecurity Challenge Lab

The University of Montenegro’s Innovation Hub in Cybersecurity carried out a seven-month programme that brought students together with mentors from the business and public sectors, supported by senior academics from across Ulysseus. Working on real-world challenges, participants presented their outcomes at a final public event. Among the standout projects was a multidisciplinary team composed of students from electrical engineering, natural sciences, and law, which collaborated with the National Parliament service. The team contributed to the preparation of Montenegro’s new Law on Information Security, notably by supporting the comparative analysis of legal and institutional frameworks and helping inform Members of Parliament ahead of legislative discussions. The initiative received the 2024 Game Changer Award for the best cybersecurity project in Montenegro. Participating students were also awarded mobility opportunities within the University Côte d’Azur’s computer science and cybersecurity ecosystem.
Cybersecurity Science Shop

Cybersecurity Science Shop

The Science Shop of the Ulysseus Cybersecurity Innovation Hub (UoM) was launched by a call to stakeholders and community members in each Ulysseus region to propose challenges and topics they would like to collaborate on (end of 2025). Challenges collected from three countries, refined and tailored by professors into student assignments were provided to students to work on, assuming iterative consultations with challenge providers. The tasks have been verified through communication with challenge providers, at an online workshop held on February 19. The students’ works are in progress during academic 2025/2026, and will be finalized with a public presentation.

Community Engagement News