UNIC brings engaged research to Rotterdam and its European partner cities

What is engaged research?

This is an umbrella term that describes research approaches that have a common interest in collaborative inquiry with society. It assumes knowledge, insight and expertise that comes from a variety of sources - researchers, citizens, policymakers, practitioners - and that research outputs are concerned with the process of co-production of knowledge through partnership for societal impact. It encompasses a range of participatory and community-based methodologies and ensures research rigour, the democratization of research and the increased impact of research activities. This can include, for instance, community-based research approaches, participatory research, citizen science, action-based research, transformative research, co-design and co-creation methods, etc. As such it offers unique opportunities for researchers seeking to develop a better understanding of today’s key societal challenges, as well as offering insights into the potential approaches to tackling respective challenges.

Research together with the City and city stakeholders

The UNIC cities (Bilbao, Bochum, Cork, Deusto, Istanbul, Oulu, Rotterdam and Zagreb) have faced a significant structural transformation in recent decades. These ‘post-industrial cities’ have shifted, or are shifting, from predominantly industrial to service economies. This transformation has far-reaching influences and can lead to new societal challenges, for instance, due to changes in demography, employment, mobility, healthcare, culture, etc. Such a transformation brings new opportunities for cities to tackle these challenges, as well as opportunities for researchers to investigate these transformations and offer the city support in understanding (and potentially tackling) the social phenomena.

Consequently, engaged research is a methodology that seamlessly helps researchers contribute to the EUR’s wider strategy of ‘creating positive societal impact’ and positioning our university as an institution that plays a central role in understanding and shaping the city.

What is UNIC4ER, and why is it useful to me as a researcher?

With UNIC4ER, UNIC will create a truly European infrastructure for the research of the questions that post-industrial cities face. Through this programme, the EUR and our other UNIC partners strive to mainstream engaged research across all faculties and departments, to facilitate effective community-university partnerships. This will be done by developing new infrastructure and processes within the university, as well as:

• Defining a shared understanding of what we mean by engaged research, agreed on guidelines for good practice, and nationally agreed on indicators to measure impact.
• Formalising the partnership between the City of Rotterdam and the EUR, through the joint definition of an Engaged Research Roadmap and a Joint Declaration committing to collaborations.
• Financially supporting researchers to conduct engaged research through seed funding opportunities (incl. funding for joint research collaborative initiatives, joint research acquisition and non-traditional scholars).
• Training researchers in different engaged research methodologies and embedding engaged research in undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral training as a means of building future research capacity.
• Building a community of practice of engaged researchers within the UNIC consortium, to build partnerships, exchange learnings and good practices.

Interested to join the community and utilizing the opportunities provided by UNIC4ER?

• Get in touch with Charlotte Ruitinga, programme manager UNIC4ER, charlotte.ruitinga@eur.nl
• Check out: https://unic.eu/en/research 
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