For a university alliance to have lasting impact, its work cannot stop at the project level. It must become part of how each institution operates. That is the ambition driving EUNICoast's approach to community engagement, coordinated by Work Package 4.
Work Package 4 (Community Engagement), led by the University of Sassari (UNISS), is guiding all partner universities through a structured process to formalise their commitment to community engagement. Each institution has been conducting an internal review of its existing practices, using the TEFCE Toolbox: a recognised European framework that helps universities assess how they engage with society across key thematic areas such as teaching, research, and governance. The resulting Institutional Community Engagement Reports will directly feed into each partner's Community Engagement Plan, consolidating into deliverable D4.2.
Partners have now begun the next stage: an Institutional Action Planning process supported by the SHEFCE methodology, a complementary self-assessment tool designed to help universities evaluate and continuously improve the quality, inclusiveness, and territorial impact of their engagement activities.
Together, TEFCE and SHEFCE provide a shared evidence-based foundation for embedding community engagement, not as a one-off exercise, but as an enduring pillar of institutional strategy across the EUNICoast partnership.
