The Faculty recently celebrated its Silver Engage Watermark Award, recognising the growing impact of our public engagement work and the central role it plays in strengthening our academic community and the partnerships we build beyond the University.
The Watermark Award reflects the Faculty’s commitment to meaningful public engagement demonstrated across a wide range of participatory research initiatives, community co-creation projects, family events, festivals, school outreach and cultural partnerships around the region which have attracted over 10,000 attendees.
Flagship programmes such as Pint of Science, Meet the Scientists (now in its 10th year!), and FameLab have run alongside more than 50 researcher-led projects supported by over £32,000 in Faculty public engagement funding. These initiatives have spanned diverse themes from the MicroAge project exploring the impacts of microgravity and exercise to the RETURN project addressing dental inequality in adults which engaged more than 700 people.
Researchers from all our Institutes have adopted a range of innovative approaches, from board games such as the Dementia Inequalities board game to creative learning tools such as the dog anatomy models developed at Leahurst.
Engagement activity is designed to be accessible and interactive, encouraging curiosity and participation across all age groups. Regular family festivals and events such as VetFest, Marvellous Medicine, summer activities at Ness Botanical Gardens and Toddler Science Club bring hundreds of children and their families (and sometimes pets!) from across the Northwest and Wales.
The past three years have also seen major regional initiatives including a Festival of Data led by the Civic Data Cooperative and the British Sciences Festival, hosted in Liverpool. These events showcased novel and inclusive formats from anti-viral roller skating, the science of a night out and how zine-making can foster community connection and empathy.
Communications have expanded even further as result of ground-breaking podcasts including Between 2 Ovaries, which brings together experts in reproductive health to challenge stigma and misinformation around reproductive health.
As a public engagement team, we aim to nurture and support this activity by providing regular training, workshops, and informal drop-in sessions throughout the year, access to our public engagement funding scheme, as well as hands-on support at events throughout the year.
We’d like to thank everyone who shared their time, expertise and ideas to make our public health impactful, creative and award-winning.
Interested in getting involved? Why not explore the resources, funding and training we have available to support you in your public engagement journey.