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This UNIC Seed Fund Initiative aims to support collaborative "Engaged Research" initiatives across our partner universities, sparking new ideas for tackling societal challenges in post-industrial cities.
On this page, you can learn about what Engaged Research means, get inspired by projects supported through this seed fund mechanism, and (when applicable) how to apply for funding. You can find additional information in downloadable PDFs. If you have further questions regarding Engaged Research, please reach out to UNIC coordinator(s) in your host institution.
The European University of Post-Industrial cities (UNIC) is an alliance of ten universities impacting education, research, and community engagement to develop post-industrial cities. The UNIC Alliance is located in transitory economies and places that constitute a shared socio-economic environment of post-industrial transformations. Our universities are expected to play a key role in the transition of their cities to become centres of knowledge concerning transformations by engaging with research into the very processes and learning on resilience, adaptation, co-creation, etc.
UNIC researchers tackle societal challenges by involving and engaging citizens, civil society, public/city authorities, and private businesses in research and innovation activities. Engaged Research offers an interdisciplinary approach and method for systematic knowledge production not only for society but also together with society.
In order to increase the amount of collaborative engaged research initiatives within the UNIC consortium and provide support to researchers to coordinate those initiatives, seed funds are allocated to the members of the Alliance.
“UNIC Seed Fund” offers small-scale support for engaged research project proposal development across all disciplines within the UNIC consortium and beyond. This can be a Horizon Europe, JPI Urban Europe, AMIF, Digital Europe, Interreg, or similar national or international project proposal based on or inspired by our UNIC Cities’ challenges and opportunities collected in the Local Engaged Research Roadmaps.
Development of Online Dementia Training Program for Informal Caregiver...
The project "Development of Online Dementia Training Program for Informal Caregivers" adopts a...
06 Dec
Read more »Cultural interventions during post-industrial transition in cities
Our project aims to compare the post-industrial transformations of two UNIC cities; Istanbul a...
06 Dec
Read more »Digitizing Urban Cultural Heritage for Engaged Research
We are living in a decade of unparalleled digitalisation. Human activities, vehicles, urban fu...
06 Dec
Read more »Creating an interdisciplinary network for gender mainstreaming in medi...
Despite the feminization of the healthcare workforce in the last three decades, this was not r...
06 Dec
Read more »Large carnivores monitoring in Eastern Türkiye
For more than 15 years, the NGO Kuzey Doğa has been dedicated to managing the conservation of ...
06 Dec
Read more »Capacity Building with Traveller Peer-Researchers
With support from UNIC4ER seed funding for capacity building in engaged research with non-trad...
06 Dec
Read more »Homes, neighbourhoods and the compact city
This project is engaging stakeholders to investigate from the ground up, the research question...
06 Dec
Read more »Children and Young People’s Participation in Planning - Implementing C...
This UNIC4ER Seed Funded project is exploring the development of a UNIC network on best practi...
02 May
Read more »What access to university do migrants have in Belgium?
From findings to recommendations and best practice, this seminar sought to highlight the diffi...
24 Jun
Read more »Critical Zones Project - Research Stay
A two-and-a-half-day seminar was held between 27 and 29 May 2024 on the Sart-Tilman campus (Un...
06 Dec
Read more »Traveller Court Support Initiative
Co-designed & Community Based Supports for Traveller Litigants in the District Court.
06 Dec
Read more »Systems Modeling to Determine the Societal Benefit of Multi-Cancer Ear...
Cancer still is a devastating disease for which increasing evidence exists that there are sign...
06 Dec
Read more »Living Labs on degraded soils
Strategic meeting to establish a multi-stakeholder partnership and prepare a project submissio...
14 Mar
Read more »Pediatric oncology nurse sustainable educational website and module de...
Developing a website for pediatric oncology nurse sustainable education, and assessing the fea...
06 Dec
Read more »Displacement and emplacement of the highly skilled migrants including ...
Producing a general framework for studying the processes of displacement and emplacement of re...
06 Dec
Read more »Oceanic Time - Exploring more-than-human temporalities through partici...
Exploring and mapping time-related dimensions of more-than-human actors around water: what is ...
26 Feb
Read more »Developing a Platform for Collaboration and Knowledge Sharing to Suppo...
Modern cities face significant challenges related to energy consumption and CO2 emissions due ...
06 Dec
Read more »Aging Well Together in Liège
This one-week summer school brought together academics, specialists and members of civil socie...
17 Sep
Read more »Advancing EU Water Diplomacy in the South Caucasus
Investigating the grounds for the EU to engage in water diplomacy in the South Caucasus to pro...
06 Dec
Read more »ENGAGENet – Network for Socially Engaged Research and Collaboration
Enhancing city collaboration by developing a research center for socially engaged research on ...
13 Oct
Read more »Main challenges of climate change for tourism in post-industrial citi...
Exploring the main challenges of climate change regarding the tourism activity of post-industr...
06 Dec
Read more »Policies in post-industrial cities based on a Society 4.0 approach: pr...
New policies in post-industrial cities based on a Society 4.0 approach, with a particular inte...
06 Dec
Read more »Strengthening Gender Equality Plans in Post-Industrial Cities through ...
Promoting gender equality in academia within post-industrial cities universities and research ...
06 Dec
Read more »Building Strategies for Health and Mental Well-being of Employees
The project CSwell aims to explore the what kind of stress customer success managers experienc...
06 Dec
Read more »Understanding Territorial Servitization in post-industrial Regions
This project seeks to comprehend the differences and similarities between these regions. By co...
06 Dec
Read more »Engaged Students for Inclusive Cities
On the 12th of December an international workshop was organized on Campus Woudestein in Rotter...
12 Dec
Read more »Investigating means-end decoupling in social enterprises and the (poss...
Impact Centre Erasmus together with partner university Koç University have been granted a seed...
06 Dec
Read more »Soil Regeneration through a Network of Living Labs and Lighthouses
Creation of a network of Living Labs and Lighthouses across 8 European countries dedicated to ...
06 Dec
Read more »Gaining insights into needs for mastering internationalization
Identifying general and specific educational needs for short-term mobilities organization and ...
27 Mar
Read more »Sustainable Management of Plastic Waste through Biorecycling
Sharing knowledge, expertise, and experiences to jointly contribute to sustainable waste manag...
27 Mar
Read more »Communication of Children with Multiple Disabilities
The main objective of this collaborative initiative is to collect preliminary data about commu...
27 Mar
Read more »Summer School on Smart City Concepts in Oulu & Bochum
The UNIC Summer School focused on the smart city strategies developed by Oulu and Bochum and w...
06 Dec
Read more »Identifying Upskilling and Reskilling Needs of Middle-Aged Ukrainian I...
This project aims to identify the skill needs of middle-aged Ukrainian immigrants who have bee...
06 Dec
Read more »A Just Transition for Cities
With support from the UNIC4ER Seed Fund, an interdisciplinary collaboration between colleagues...
06 Dec
Read more »Dignified Spaces in a Plural Europe: On the (In)Visibility of Cultural...
This class focuses on politically, socially, and spatially marginalized communities in the urb...
14 Feb
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