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COCO stands for Collaboration Compass. It is a three-year Erasmus+ project (2025–2028) that fosters cooperation between higher education institutions (HEIs) and non-governmental and civil society organisations (NGOs/CSOs) to address social and environmental challenges.

The consortium includes five partner organisations: Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań (Poland, lead), ACEEU (Germany), PISOP (Poland), University of Camerino (Italy), and Aalborg University (Denmark).

Despite shared goals, HEIs and NGOs/CSOs rarely collaborate in a structured way. Barriers include a lack of awareness, rigid academic curricula, and the absence of practical tools for guiding partnerships. COCO was created to remove these barriers and build lasting, meaningful cooperation between universities and civil society.

COCO will deliver: an Awareness Guide on HEI–NGO/CSO collaboration opportunities; the Civic Classroom, a full course equipping students for non-profit work; and the Collaboration Compass, a set of five free digital tools to help universities and civil society organisations build and assess their partnerships. All resources will be freely available on this website.

Mini-Publics are structured, in-person deliberation events held at each partner university (Denmark, Italy, Poland). Bringing together students, university staff, and local NGO/CSO representatives, each event uses a World Café format where participants rotate between themed discussion tables covering needs, barriers, and opportunities for collaboration.

Reciprocal Mentorships pair a university staff member with an NGO/CSO staff member for a minimum of three months. Unlike traditional mentoring, both parties act as mentor and mentee simultaneously, sharing knowledge, experience, and perspectives across sectors.

The Civic Classroom is a course developed and piloted at Aalborg University, Adam Mickiewicz University, and the University of Camerino. It combines flipped classroom content, hands-on exercises, and practical work experience with local NGOs/CSOs, equipping students with skills relevant to non-profit careers. The materials, including a teacher's guide, student resources, and certification guidelines, are published freely for use by any institution.

Each partner university hosts an Expo event where students present their practical experiences working with NGOs/CSOs and pitch ideas for future collaborations. NGO/CSO representatives, university staff, and the public are all welcome. The Expos are designed as a replicable format and may be combined with existing career fairs or academic events.

The Collaboration Compass is a suite of five free digital tools embedded on this website: the Path Navigator (helps choose a collaboration format), Partnership Map (connects potential partners), Course Improver (monitors ongoing collaborations), Social Propeller (helps NGOs/CSOs identify development gaps), and Engagement Calibrator (helps HEIs assess their community engagement). The tools can be used independently or together.

Yes. All project outputs are free and openly licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-SA). The project website and its resources will remain accessible for at least three years after the project concludes in September 2028.

The primary working language of COCO is English, and all core outputs are published in English. Partner institutions may produce translations of selected materials for their local communities where needed.

Subscribe to the COCO newsletter (published every six months) via this website, follow the COCO LinkedIn group, and check back here for updates, blog articles, and event announcements.