In February 2026, Stavroula Panagiotopoulou, Assistant Program Manager at HIGGS (Higher
Incubator Giving Growth & Sustainability), travelled to Turin, Italy, for a one-month
secondment at the University of Turin as part of the EHEI project.
The secondment was a rich and varied experience that combined project collaboration, knowledge exchange and hands-on learning. I participated in the main EHEI consortium meeting (10-12 February), which brought together all project partners for plenary discussions, World Café sessions and field visits to two local civil society organisations: ASAI and Comunità Cantiere. On 16 February, Idelivered a workshop at Spazio 26 titled “Responding to Challenges: Civil Society Organisations in Greece”, sharing HIGGS’s work, its impact on
marginalised communities and practical tools for advocacy planning with an audience of professors, NGO representatives, volunteers and PhD students. The weeks that followed were equally inspiring: meetings with UniTo’s disability support services, with a student collective of people with disabilities (Mai Ultimi), with a delegate working on prison education programmes and attendance at several workshops are a few
examples of the activities.
“This secondment gave me a completely new lens through which to see the relationship
between universities and civil society. The conversations I had with students, delegates,
researchers and CSOs workers, confirmed that we are all working toward the same goal, just
from different sides of the same door.” – Stavroula Panagiotopoulou, HIGGS
