Community engagement in higher education is gaining growing recognition at both policy and institutional levels. A major milestone came with UNESCO’s 2026 roadmap Transforming Higher Education, which explicitly places community engagement alongside teaching and research as a way for higher education institutions to respond to major societal challenges. 

This recognition is more than symbolic. Across Europe, academics and students are already working with communities through service-learning, challenge-based learning, collaborative research, citizen science, patient and public involvement, and other forms of engaged teaching and research. These practices connect academic knowledge with real-world challenges and position communities not only as beneficiaries, but also as partners in knowledge creation. 

At the same time, many community-engaged practices still depend heavily on the motivation of individual academics and professional staff. For community engagement to become sustainable, universities need stronger institutional structures, supportive policies, recognition mechanisms and long-term partnerships with external communities. 

This is the focus of the Erasmus+ project SPACE: Supporting Professionals and Academics for Community Engagement. Through its activities, SPACE supports universities in developing more systematic approaches to community-engaged teaching, research and partnerships.