PartiCIVIS enriches participatory research as a strategy to strengthen and broaden the third mission of HEIs, a tight research-to-action coupling, research-based education and challenge-driven civic engagement. It shall drive the current societal transformation processes in local and regional innovation ecosystems, by taking leadership and engaging in transdisciplinary approaches with societal actors outside academia. Participatory research is a key enabling technique in the social innovation process, directly involving in knowledge generation various stakeholders and thereby accelerating societal transformation. PartiCIVIS builds on existing multi-level networks established in our transcontinental University Alliance, well embedded in the AU-EU Innovation Agenda 2023, where universities drive innovation-oriented research by adopting co-design and co-creation. PartiCIVIS’ core is to (1) enhance participatory tools and methods reflecting key societal challenges in equitable partnership; (2) foster evidence-based reasoning for the facilitating role of participatory research to drive social innovation; (3) establish glocal concern and engagement in innovation ecosystems.
Inspired by our CIVIS Alliance, to establish civic engagement as a fundamental cross-cutting goal, the project comprehensively links AU-EU priority areas such as public health, green transition, digital technologies. This shall benefit all impact levels. On system level enlightened by the Union of Skills towards flexible career and learning pathways, circulation and exchange of skills, and value-driven competitiveness. On institutional level, nurturing relevance of joint curricula and digital tools for innovative co-creation, via skills alignment and versatile thinking of future academics and staff. On individual level, equipping staff with confidence in sharing and exchanging, jointly generating and converting ideas to tangible outputs, emerging as a proactive, forward-looking expert pool.
