Community Knowledge Initiative (CKI)

Welcome to the Community Knowledge Initiative

The Community Knowledge Initiative (CKI) is set out to underpin and realise a civic mission as part of University of Galway's core activities. The CKI was initially funded by the Atlantic Philanthropies and core funded by University of Galway in 2007. The CKI's activities are viewed as integral to the University's strategic mission and involved a fundamental examination of the role of the University in the social fabric' and are subsequently reflected as a core priority by the University of Galway's Academic and Strategic Plans. The CKI aims to promote greater civic engagement through core academic activities, namely teaching, research and service at the levels of students, staff, courses, programmes and the institution as a whole.‌

The core function of the CKI is to educate students for their role as active citizens and to ensure that graduates have knowledge, skills, values and attitudes to understand and address the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG's) for positive societal change. This is reflected in the University of Galway Strategy 2020-2025 Mission Statement "University of Galway is for the Public Good".  The CKI established a number of flagship programmes engaging students to community and society. These flagship programmes connect to the four dimensions of the CKI: service learning, volunteering, engaged research and knowledge sharing and help tackle society’s evolving sustainable development challenges. Central to our methodology has been to work as a community of practice (Wenger, 1998) in partnership with students, staff and the wider community, as well as funding agencies and statutory bodies, to develop positive responses to the SDG's.