ENgaged ReseArch coNnecting Community with higher Education Erasmus Project

Project Title

ENgaged ReseArch coNnecting Community with higher Education

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for higher education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Social dialogue; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Research and innovation

Project Summary

As a result of the global dynamics and urgencies we are facing today, universities are prompted to interact more closely with their immediate surroundings and take more targeted and responsible actions for tackling the so-called ‘grand societal challenges’. However, HEIs research and education still responds primarily to the concerns of academic disciplines rather than civil society needs. On the other hand, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) play a growing role in economic, social and environmental issues and have an increasing influence on global governance issues. But most of these organizations face scarcities in terms of financial and/or human resources that are critical to their ability to expand and improve their actions. Providing research support to local communities strengthens the capacities of CSOs to expand their developmental impacts. Community Engaged Research and Learning (CERL), e.g. via Science Shops, is proven to be an effective mechanism to strengthen higher education institutions’ social responsibility, to strengthen civil society and to develop active citizenship in the scientific and student community. The ENtRANCE project (2018-2021) increased and improved collaboration between CSOs and teachers/researchers/students, by developing and disseminating a training programme for teachers (and their students) on what CERL entails and how to put it into practice in courses and on institutional level.

ENgaged ReseArch coNnecting Community with higher Education, that’s what ENtRANCE stands for and has been working towards, resulting in the achievement of its objectives:
(1) increase skills/competencies of higher education students (and staff) to solve actual problems faced by civil society
(2) boost participation of CSOs in collaborative research projects and bringing those issues on research agendas
(3) embed scientific research results into local community actions, contributing to knowledge transfer
(4) design, assess and recognize a flexible and multidisciplinary learning approach that can lay the foundation for effective partnerships between HEIs and civil society
(5) share successful factors and challenges for supporting public engagement and transfer educational strategies and participatory methods to geographical contexts with scarce experience in the field

The ENtRANCE project started with a large-scale study of research needs in CSOs and an impact study of Science Shop research on CSOs (345 CSOs took part in the studies). This work allows stakeholders to better address and adjust their solutions towards civil society development, enriching the research agendas with societal topics. Based on the results of the studies, the ENtRANCE team developed an open, flexible and multidisciplinary CERL learning approach and training materials, incorporated in a training programme for teachers on how to design and execute a quality Community Engaged Research and Learning (CERL) project, increasing the civic and social skills of students and staff while answering the societal issues raised by the CSOs. In the context of the trainings, all institutions conducted CERL pilot projects with multidisciplinary team of students, staff and CSOs. In total, 62 staff, 400 students and 81 CSOs were involved in those pilots, that were described in case studies documenting the collaborative research and knowledge transfer process. As a result of the CERL collaborations, the CSOs embedded new products, services or processes in their operation and spread their new knowledge to their local and international networks facing the same societal challenges. Because the CERL approach ENtRANCE developed put an emphasis on the equality between all partners (all learn from each other), CSOs were not ‘helped’ but ’empowered’. The training programme was assessed per institution: participants were overall positive and brought up areas of improvement, that will be applied in the future versions, as the programme will keep on running after the end of ENtRANCE. All ENtRANCE results were collected in an e-handbook for teachers and policy advisors who want to introduce community engaged research and learning into their modules, curricula and higher education institutions, titled “How to embed CERL into your institution”, freely downloadable on the project website entrance-project.eu (and 8 other websites).

On an institutional level, CERL was embedded in curricula and awareness of science and education decisionmakers increased, leading to institution-wide follow-up projects on CERL. Also, teachers and researchers’ networks of societal partners was expanded, leading to new collaborations also after the end of ENtRANCE. On a national level, other HEIs were inspired by the CERL training material and some proposed a similar approach to their staff/students. Dissemination also led to new collaborations between HEIs and, internationally, to much interest and fruitful discussions, and to two new approved Erasmus+ projects on CERL.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 350153 Eur

Project Coordinator

VRIJE UNIVERSITEIT BRUSSEL & Country: BE

Project Partners

• WAGENINGEN UNIVERSITY
• LAB AMMATTIKORKEAKOULU OY
• MAIEUTICA COOPERATIVA DE ENSINO SUPERIOR CRL
• VILNIAUS TECHNOLOGIJU IR DIZAINO KOLEGIJA