Are you in the early stages of a research project or planning your next research project? Do you want to engage the public in purposeful and equitable ways to create impactful research that responds to societal needs?
Yes, but not sure where to begin? Then the Upstream Engagement Pilot is for you.
Funding and support are available for you to run a small upstream engagement project to shape the future direction of your research.
What is the Upstream Engagement Pilot?
We are looking to support three researchers / research groups to carry out a small upstream engagement project. This will take the form of three workshops.
The whole process will be facilitated by the Public Engagement Unit, so you just need to bring yourself and your research ideas.
Here’s what we will be providing:
- The PEU will facilitate three interlinked upstream engagement workshops for you and your public contributors.
- These workshops will help you build a relationship with a public group and collaboratively shape your future research. These workshops will cover:
- Relationship Building
- Exploring Engagement
- Engaging Upstream
- The workshops will allow you to hear from public groups to shape the direction and process of your research.
- We will work with you to evaluate the experience to help us learn about upstream engagement at the University of Bath.
- We will provide funding to pay your participants, book venues, purchase materials, cover travel and other costs for the three workshops.
What is upstream engagement and why is it important?
Upstream Engagement is public engagement that happens in the early stages of the research process. Usually this means before you have submitted an application for research funding, but there are exceptions.
Upstream engagement occurs early in the research process so that public groups can influence the future direction and process of research i.e. what research is done and how it is done. This helps create more impactful and equitable research that is responsive to societal needs. This is different to other forms of public engagement which happen too late to have a significant impact on the direction and process of the research itself.
Upstream engagement is a new priority for the Public Engagement Unit at the University of Bath. This is in response to funders prioritising engagement that happens early in the research cycle and expectations from publics that they are engaged and involved in research from the early stages.
We know that upstream engagement work takes time and resources to be done right. You need to be able to build relationships with public groups, pay your participants and create an environment for meaningful engagement. This is why we are providing funding and facilitation support for these pilot projects.
What we are looking for:
- Three pilot research areas – this could be an individual researcher, a research group, project, centre, consortia etc.
- A willingness to try out new ways of working. For example, working in a relational way.
- Being open to the direction and process of your research changing in response to the input you get from public contributors.
- Time to commit to the work. We anticipate this will take 30 hours of your time from June 2026 - January 2027.
- A clearly defined public group that you want to work with and an idea of what you want to achieve through this work.
How to apply:
- Attend Upstream Engagement Information Session on Wednesday 15th April, 12.30-2pm. Book your place by completing this form.
- Or book a meeting with Rob Cooper, Upstream Engagement Manager, to discuss upstream engagement from 1-30 April.
- Once you’ve attended the information session or spoken to us, we will send you an application form to complete.
Please note we will only accept application forms from people who have attended the information session or spoken to the PEU separately. It’s important for us to talk to you to understand what you want to get out of the pilot.
Who can apply:
This pilot is open to staff members in the Research & Education and Technical & Experimental job families (any discipline or career stage) and doctoral students. Doctoral students must secure permission from their supervisor(s) to apply for this award.
We aim to support a diverse range of upstream engagement across disciplines and career stage. You do not need to have any prior experience of public engagement to apply. We welcome applications from all faculties and the school including areas outside of biomedical and health contexts.
Assessment Criteria
The review panel will consist of:
- The Public Engagement Unit
- An external public engagement expert
- An internal PPIE expert
The panel will review the expressions of interest according to the following criteria.
How well does the proposal meet the aim of the upstream engagement pilot programme?
- Is there a clearly defined public group or community?
- Does the application demonstrate how upstream engagement is relevant to them?
- Will the workshops be able to shape the future direction and process of research in a way that’s responsive to public and societal needs?
- Is the research currently funded?
- Have the research priorities, questions, methodologies, and intended outcomes already been defined?
Key dates
- Upstream Engagement Information Session: Wednesday 15th April, 12.30-2pm, CB 4.8 and online.
- Meet with the PEU: anytime from 1 - 30 April
- Applications due: Thursday 7th May, 4pm.
- Applicants informed of outcome: week commencing 1st June
- Pilot starts: June 2026
- Pilot ends: November 2026
- Project reports due: 21st January 2027
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