Community Engagement across Borders: Designing Inclusive Partnerships for European Universities

This blended staff week equips university staff with the knowledge, skills, and practical tools to design, implement, and evaluate inclusive community engagement initiatives. Through international collaboration, expert-led sessions, fieldwork, and challenge-based project development, participants will co-create innovative solutions that strengthen partnerships between universities and their communities. The programme will serve as a discussion ground to recognise and share the best practices in CE within the alliance and to provide inputs for the next stage of Ulysseus.

 

Please be aware that your home university may set a different application deadline depending on their internal selection process.

Registration dates 15 October 2026 07 December 2026
Course dates 01 February 2027 05 February 2027
Registration is open
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Community Engagement across Borders: Designing Inclusive Partnerships for European Universities

Course Outline

Universities are increasingly expected to create societal impact by working collaboratively with local, regional, and international communities. Moving beyond the traditional missions of teaching and research, higher education institutions are embracing community engagement as a strategic approach to addressing societal challenges through partnerships based on reciprocity, inclusion, and co-creation.

This Blended staff week provides academic and professional staff with the knowledge, tools, and practical experience needed to design, implement, and evaluate meaningful community engagement initiatives. Through expert lectures, interactive workshops, field visits, and collaborative project development, participants will explore how universities can strengthen relationships with students, local communities, public authorities, industry, cultural institutions, NGOs, and civil society organisations. The programme adopts a challenge-based and design-thinking approach. Working in international and interdisciplinary teams, participants will identify real community needs, map relevant stakeholders, and co-create innovative engagement projects addressing themes such as student wellbeing, inclusion, cultural heritage,
sustainability, lifelong learning, citizen participation, entrepreneurship, and regional development.

Throughout the programme, participants will receive mentoring from experts in community engagement, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI), project management, communication, and impact evaluation. The programme also aims to foster long-term collaboration among partner universities, contributing to stronger European university alliances and a shared culture of civic responsibility. In addition, the blended staff week comes at a moment of co-creation of the next stage of Ulysseus so that the inputs collected will serve as an evidence-base for the design of the future approach to the alliance’s CE strategy.

More information about current Ulysseus Community Engagement approach and activities.

Course Content

The programme explores contemporary approaches to community engagement in higher education, focusing on universities’ societal role, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI), stakeholder engagement, and participatory governance. Participants will learn methods for community needs assessment, design thinking, co-creation, partnership building, impact evaluation, and science communication, while developing practical community engagement projects in international teams. Through lectures, workshops, field visits, and collaborative project work, the course addresses engagement with students, staff, public authorities, industry, civil society organisations, and local communities, equipping participants with transferable tools to strengthen both internal cohesion of the Alliance and the societal impact of Ulysseus.

Learning Outcomes

Following this course, participants will be able to:

  • Understand European approaches to community engagement
  • Learn about best practices in university CE across Ulysseus and beyond
  • Implement Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) principles
  • Apply methods of co-creation in education, research and innovation with different stakeholder groups
  • Design transferable community engagement projects
  • Understand funding lines for CE in European programmes
  • Develop partnerships within and beyond Ulysseus
  • Produce an implementation plan for their institution
  • Co-create priorities for future Ulysseus CE strategy

Requirements

  • The blended staff week is open to academic and administrative staff involved in project design, stakeholder relations, community engagement, international cooperation, student support, knowledge transfer, outreach, communication, and institutional development.
  • The programme is particularly relevant for staff seeking to strengthen the societal impact of their institutions through collaborative, inclusive, and community-oriented initiatives.

Virtual Component

Virtual component will be organised between 18.02.2027 and 22.02.2027 and include two main sessions:

Session 1: Community Engagement in European Universities

  • What is community engagement?
  • Third mission of universities
  • Civic universities
  • Examples from Ulysseus Assignment: each participant prepares and shares one successful community engagement example from their university.

 

Session 2: Mapping Communities & Funding Opportunities Stakeholder

Mapping exercise, where participants identify students, local citizens, NGOs, municipalities, schools, businesses, museums, tourism organisations, vulnerable groups, etc. In addition, main funding opportunities for projects related to community engagement will be presented in order for the participants to start preparing project pitches and proposals they find meaningful for the local stakeholders.

Physical Mobility

  • The physical mobility part will be running from 01 to 05 February 2027 in Podgorica, Montenegro.

Day 1

Morning

  • Welcome and Icebreaker | Building the Ulysseus Community
  • Keynote | “Beyond the Third Mission: Universities as Catalysts for Community Transformation”
  • Lecture 1 | “Equality, Diversity and Inclusion as Foundations of Community Engagement”

Afternoon

  • Inspiration Session | Good Practices from Ulysseus
  • Workshop 1 | Mapping Lab: Who Is Our Community?
  • Workshop 2 | Defining the Challenge

Day 2

Morning

  • Lecture 2 | Community Needs Assessment: How Do We Know What Communities Really Need?
  • Guest Panel | Community Voices

Afternoon

  • Workshop 3 | Field Lab

Day 3

Morning

  • Reflection Session | From Observation to Opportunity
  • Lecture 3 | Global Competences for Community Engagement

Afternoon

  • Lecture 4 | Funding Opportunities for Community Engagement Community
  • Design Sprint

Day 4

Morning

  • Lecture 5 | From Activities to Impact
  • Lecture 6 | Building and Communicating Long-Term Partnerships

Afternoon

  • Community Design Refinement
  • Peer Review

Day 5

Morning

  • Lecture 7 | Scaling Community Engagement Across European Universities
  • Inspirational Talk | Community Engagement Champions (FUNK)

Afternoon

  • Final Pitch Session
  • Closing Discussion and Award Ceremony

More information