Nowadays, universities need to dialog with society, to offer responses to the main problems of humanity, and to face the social and environmental crisis. Their role cannot be depleted in the conventional tasks of a Higher Education institution, focused on the coordination of teaching programs and research lines (Santos Rego et al., 2015). They have the obligation to reflect on their civic mission, being able to change and improve their surrounding environment and contributing to a more inclusive society.

The adaptation to the European Higher Education Area was a good opportunity for reflection, renewal and improvement for universities. This is how the introduction of methodologies such as service-learning, centered on the student and which strengthen the social dimension of university education, is promoted. Service-learning is defined as an educational purpose that combines the traditional processes of learning with a community service in a single project in which students learn meanwhile they work on real needs of their community with the objective of solving them (Puig et al., 2007).

Traditionally, research has focused on studying the impact of this methodology on students, in terms of improvements in learning and development of skills (Santos Rego et al., 2021). Despite the importance of the community in this process, we lack solid research on the impact of service-learning on the community and how this relationship may have affected the university (Redondo and Fuentes, 2020).

It is therefore appropriate to study the impact of service-learning on organizations and their users (Shek et al., 2021), along with the way in which this theoretical impact could favor the learning and innovation processes in the university. In this case we acknowledge the concept of 'reciprocity' as a basic principle for the inclusion of this methodology in the university context. Reciprocity means adherence to the principles of respect, trust, genuine commitment, balance of power, shared resources, and clear communication between universities and community agents (Jacoby, 2015). The aim is to promote, using service-learning as a pedagogical strategy, the relationships of exchange and mutual benefit between Academia and social actors (Asghar and Rowe, 2017).

There are works that confirmed the benefits for the community derived from its involvement in service-learning courses, and in which the exchange of knowledge and meeting the needs of entities or groups were the main focal points (Nduna, 2007; Van Rensburg et al., 2019). However, the way in which the content of the project is perceived, the quality of the project provider, and the benefits received are predictors of the overall satisfaction of the recipients and the community (Shek et al., 2021).

Despite the relevance of the issue, one cannot state that research attention has been lavish (Butin, 2003; Ward and Wolf-Wendel, 2000). According to Reeb and Folger (2013), the studies that focused on this area showed serious limitations, especially from a methodological point of view, since the results obtained were based solely on the impressions of community members, teachers or students.

In this paper we present the design of an extensive research carried out by researchers from nine Spanish and three foreign universities. These are the main objectives:

• Analyze the reciprocity between the university and the community as an element to improve quality of the service-learning projects, which conditions their impact on the entities, their users and the university.
• Study the possibilities of service-learning as a methodological approach capable of contributing to the achievement of the objectives of the 2030 Agenda in community organizations and in the university.

This paper is framed in the Research Project “The impact of the university in the community through service-learning projects. A study focused on reciprocity (SL(C))” (PID2021-122827OB-I00).

The research will be developed in four phases. The first one is a descriptive study, to identify what is meant by “community” in service-learning projects, and its role in this methodology. The instruments to be used in this phase are: - Questionnaire addressed to social entities/organizations to collect information about its nature and its degree of knowledge, training and involvement in service-learning projects. - Questionnaire for teachers who have developed service-learning projects to identify the sense and scope of the community, and analyze its role in the projects. - In-depth interview with the managers of entities participating in service-learning in order to analyze the third mission of the University, the role of the community in the university project, and the service-learning-SDG connection. - Discussion groups with teachers (participating and non-participating in SL projects from different areas of knowledge) in order to analyze the third mission of the University and the role of the community in the university project, as well as the SL-SDG connection. In the second phase we will focus on analyzing the level of service-learning institutionalization in each university, since it may condition the impact on the community. These are the instruments: - Analysis of institutional documents and the official websites to identify service-learning in the university policy. - In-depth interviews with the managers of the institutions (key informants) to analyze the institutionalization indicators. - Rubric for institutionalizing service-learning at the university. The third phase will be the assessment of the impact of service-learning projects on the community. We will use a quasi-experimental design of two non-equivalent groups, with pretest and posttest. From a qualitative point of view, we decided to use participatory action research. The following instruments will be used: - Questionnaire for the supervisors of the organizations (pretest-posttest). - Questionnaire for teachers about their SL project. - Questionnaire for students (pretest and posttest) on civic-social competences and self-efficacy. - Follow-up protocol for each service-learning project. - Group interview with recipients of the service, and/or Osgood scale to collect their perceptions of the service. - Service-learning portfolio to promote students’ reflection. - Osgood scale of the project as a whole. - Group interview with the managers of entities and teachers. In the fourth and final phase, we will follow up with students and entities and focus on designing, implementing and assessing an evidence-based training program for teachers and organizations.

It is worth mentioning the fact that there is hardly any solid and consistent research study on the proposed topic in Europe, especially if we refer to an experimental methodology, that will be complemented with the use of qualitative research techniques and strategies. In addition, the instruments designed and validated represent a very significant support for assessing the quality of the projects in future processes. The project integrates both national and international expert researchers, thus favoring the assumption of relevant objectives from a scientific, social and economic perspective, as well as contributing to the international projection of their research. The circumstance of collaborating with universities that have already reached an advanced stage in the process of institutionalization of service-learning, together with others that are taking their first steps in the subject, will help research to become a driving force for innovation processes in the university, involving the community in an active way, and turning it into a main actor in the educational process. The research will very likely have a clear impact on training, innovation and transfer, of undoubted benefit to the university (managers, faculty and students) and the community (organizations, entities, individuals etc.). What we seek is to improve links between higher education and community, between research and educational practice at the university, trying to promote dialog in favor of innovation, which can contribute to raising social welfare indicators. In addition, it is intended to strengthen research in one of the least worked dimensions of service-learning, that is, service to the community itself. This will help to strengthen and optimize the introduction of this methodology in European universities, where in recent decades there have already been numerous studies that have revealed its potential in student learning.

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