This week sees the launch of a new £500,000 funding opportunity to support research organisations UK-wide to pilot place-based public engagement partnerships and activities.

UKRI’s Enhancing place-based partnerships in public engagement will support capacity building in collaborative, place-based public engagement between research organisations, partner organisations and communities. Successful projects and partnerships will need to be driven by a geographically defined community’s need that can be approached by engagement with research and innovation, and will plan, develop and test ways of working, co-created and in partnership with communities. UKRI expect to make at least 15 awards. Bids should request between £10,000 and up to a maximum of £40,000 pathfinder funding from UKRI to support proposed activities. The deadline for submitting a full bid is 17:00 on Monday 21 October 2019.

Engagement events

The NCCPE has been asked by UKRI to convene a support programme for the successful projects, and to host two engagement events for anyone interested in applying to the call. Attendance at these events is not a pre-requisite for submitting a bid.

The NCCPE worked with UKRI to host a webinar on Thursday 12th September to provide information on the funding call. This also included an opportunity to put questions to the UKRI team. A recording of the webinar, a Q&A, and the slides used at the event are now available. Please note, attendance to the webinar was not a pre-requiste for submitting a bid.

We are also hosting a stakeholder event on Thursday 26th September, from 10.30 – 3.30 in central Birmingham. This will provide a chance to meet the UKRI team, and also to explore the context and background to the call.  Bookings have now closed for this event.

For further details on the application and assessment processes visit: Enhancing place-based partnerships in public engagement

This funding call is part of UKRI’s new approach to public engagement. See UKRI’s new vision for public engagement for more information.

NCCPE has just launched a report detailing the policy and practice context around place-based public engagement work: Achieving equity in place-based research, innovation and public engagement, which you may find helpful when developing your bid.