Are you in the faculties of Science and Engineering & Design and thinking about public engagement with your work and want some money to make it happen? Then the Engage Grants: Initiator Fund is for you!
The Engage Grants for public engagement with research
If you're brand new to engagement or have years of experience, the Engage Grants are designed to support you to do public engagement. The Engage Grants are open to researchers, experimental and technical staff and doctoral students at any level.
This call is only open to staff and doctoral students from the Faculties of Science and Engineering & Design.
With our Engage Grants, we aim to support you to increase your skills and understanding of public engagement by funding activities where you have an opportunity to give public engagement a go for yourselves.
Initiator - for projects up to £1,000
This fund will help you carry out small-scale or pilot public engagement projects to: support your learning about engagement, gain experience of engagement and develop your engagement ideas. This funding is ideal if you have little or no experience of public engagement.
Initiator Fund Application Form
Get Inspired
Over the last 10 years, the Engage Grants have funded a range of different activities developed and delivered by scientists and engineers. They've included taking activities to science and music festivals, art/science collaborations, and creating online media materials like podcasts or films. All these sorts of activities are eligible for funding as long as they also fit within our understanding of what high-quality public engagement with research looks like at the University. Our colleagues have told us that this means:
- activities with people from outside academia
- generating benefits not only for the public group they're working with but for themselves (e.g. helping to raise their profile) or their research (e.g. improving research quality by helping refine research questions and methods)
- activities that relates to specific and active research
If you're looking for inspiration for how to meaningfully engage people and public groups with your research, we have a range of public engagement case studies of previously funded projects and project reports for you to check out. These include:
Skill swap shop - researchers from the Department of Physics hosted a visit from local artists where both researchers and artists shared their skills, demonstrated techniques from experiments / artwork and learned from each other through discussion sessions.
Greenman festival - Doctoral students from the CSCT took their engagement activities about renewable plastics to Greenman Festival and spoke to over a thousand people across the four day festival.
Young Researchers - a mentoring scheme for young people aged 13-17, between the Department of Architecture & Civil Engineering and the Bath Royal Scientific and Literary Institution (BRSLI) to develop young people’s skills in scientific enquiry and develop doctoral students’ and early career researchers’ skills in public engagement.
Science in Radstock - Jon Noble from the CSCT visited a local community group at Science in Radstock to deliver a talk about his PhD. He reflected upon the experience with some key lessons for good public engagement.
Art of the Brain - Through an art exhibition, public lecture and a workshop for 8-12 year olds, researchers and artists engaged people with research about the brain happening in the Department of Pharmacy & Pharmacology.
How we can help
The Public Engagement Unit can help you think through your ideas, give feedback on draft applications and answer any questions you have about the Engage Grants. Get in touch with us at public-engagement@bath.ac.uk and we can book in a meeting to discuss your Engage Grant application.
Deadline
The Engage Grants are now open and the call will close on Monday 13 March 2023 at 5pm. Please email applications to public-engagement@bath.ac.uk.
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