On November 12, during the International week taking place in Vilnius, there was held a workshop on Science Shop as a tool to involve students in community-based research. The participants of the International week found the topic relevant for their institutions’ needs and 12 foreign partners from Finland, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Portugal, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Turkey have attended the event.

The participants discussed the concept of the Science Shop and VTDK experience in implementing this kind of research projects based on community needs. Later, the participants discussed the issues that they thought were most relevant to modeling Science Shop activities in their institutions: funding of the Science Shop, student motivation, and engagement, lack of trust between CSOs and HEIs in terms of students‘ research, and the embedding Science Shop projects into the curriculum.

At the end of the discussion, the participants mentioned they found the workshop useful – they have mentioned the concept of Science Shop was completely new for them, they were glad to hear VTDK experience in implementing this concept and adjusting it to the institution‘s needs and Lithuanian reality. They have mentioned it was really nice to discuss problematic issues with international colleagues.