CONNECT-PhD aims to improve the doctoral experience through mentoring, transferable skills development and collaboration between universities. The project also seeks to strengthen the links between doctoral research and society by enabling doctoral candidates to work with local communities on societal challenges.

Partner universities will establish relationships with community organisations, NGOs and local associations to identify challenges that could benefit from doctoral candidates’ knowledge and research expertise. Doctoral candidates and community representatives will work together to explore local needs, define shared priorities and develop small-scale pilot initiatives. This approach is intended to help doctoral candidates understand the societal relevance of their research while ensuring that community partners actively contribute to defining problems and developing solutions.

To support these activities, the project will require staff time to coordinate the partnerships, organise workshops and support participating doctoral candidates. Universities will provide academic expertise and institutional support, while community organisations will contribute their local knowledge and experience. Mentoring and training expertise, digital collaboration tools and a budget for meetings and pilot activities will also be needed.

The training programme will address participatory project design, ethical collaboration, communication with non-academic audiences and civic responsibility. Community representatives may contribute to mentoring sessions and knowledge-sharing activities. The project will also explore the development of a digital space where community organisations can share challenges, connect with researchers and exchange experiences and resources.

Implementing this approach may present several challenges. Community organisations and doctoral candidates may have limited time to participate, and it may be difficult to maintain partnerships throughout the project. Academic priorities may not always correspond to community needs, and there is a risk that community representatives are consulted without having a genuine influence on decisions. To address these challenges, partners will be involved from the beginning, responsibilities and expectations will be clarified, and regular feedback will be collected from all participants. Activities may also need to be adapted as partnerships develop.

By the end of the project, the consortium expects to have developed a training module on community engagement for doctoral candidates, documented several university–community partnership activities and implemented small-scale pilot initiatives co-designed with community organisations. The project also aims to produce a practical framework for community-engaged doctoral research, evaluation reports incorporating feedback from both doctoral candidates and community partners and recommendations for integrating community engagement into doctoral training.

Beyond these concrete outputs, CONNECT-PhD seeks to improve doctoral candidates’ access to mentoring and professional development, strengthen their civic competencies and understanding of the societal relevance of research, and generate practical benefits for participating communities. Community partners will contribute to evaluating the activities, helping determine whether the project has responded to their priorities. The consortium will also explore how successful partnerships can continue beyond the project’s funding period.