Every autumn, the Faculty Public Engagement team delivers two dedicated grant schemes to support engaged research: Participatory Research Grants and Public Engagement Grants.
Both programmes champion creative, ambitious and meaningful work that connects research with communities and audiences beyond academia.
This year, interest was high and we received over 30 applications, with funding requests totalling more than £120,000.
Faculty Public Engagement Grants
Our Public Engagement Grants are open to staff and students across the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, offering up to £2,000 to support innovative projects that share exciting research with diverse audiences. These grants help bring research to life in creative and accessible ways.
Some of this year’s successful projects include:
- Making Medicines Better – The TherEx team secured funding to develop new engagement and outreach activities for children and young people, exploring how medicines are researched and developed.
- The Trailfinder CF Adventure – The Trailfinder CF Innovation Hub was awarded funding to produce a series of Armchair Adventures podcast episodes focused on cystic fibrosis and the wider world of microbiology. The episodes will be co-created with young people with lived experience of cystic fibrosis.
- The Big Brain – Researchers from M-RIC received funding to create “The Big Brain”, a large-scale illuminated brain model designed to demonstrate the importance and impact of mental health data in research and care.
Participatory Research Grants -
Funded through Research England’s Participatory Research allocation, these grants strengthen research by actively involving communities and research users in shaping and delivering projects. This year’s funded initiatives include:
- Exploring virtual reality for mental wellbeing in the Deaf community – A series of participatory workshops with members of the Deaf community and Deaf support groups to collaboratively shape and co-produce a future grant application.
- Shaping home care research priorities – Funding to establish a PPIE network within local care organisations, using ‘research cafés’ to support the work of the North West Coast Living Lab in Ageing and Dementia.
- Right From Day One – A pilot project working with patients to co-create a Day One Support Package for people newly diagnosed with age-related macular degeneration (AMD), identifying gaps in existing support and developing a clear, accessible resource.
Full list of funded projects
ISMIB
Layla Davies – Community Futures Workshop
Helen Reynolds - Making Medicines Better
IPH
Pete Bridge - Exploring the potential role of virtual reality in supporting mental wellbeing in the Deaf community
Oluwaseun Esan - From Margins to Centre: Participatory Action Research on Community-Led Responses to Health, Work and Place Inequalities Facing Minoritised Ethnic Women in Liverpool and Manchester
Megan Polden - Shaping home care research priorities: The creation of a carers and service users PPIE network
Idalmis Santiesteban - The Liverpool Autism Hub: A Co-produced Exploration of Wellbeing, Inclusion, and Research Engagement
Farah Akthar - Right From Day One: Participatory Development of a Support Package for Patients Diagnosed with Macular Degeneration Eye Disease
Jenny Downing - Co-production and pilot of a the Renal-HF education game
Cintia Faija - Co-adapting a person-centred social network intervention for use in primary care mental health services using an experienced based approach with service users, carers/supporters, NHS Talking Therapies staff and community partners in the UK
Gail Faragher – The Big Brain
ILCaMS
Catriona Waitt - Village Health Teams – Preventing Infections Through Engagement and Co-creation (PROTECT)
Elizabeth Sutton - Beat the Body Clock
IVES
Rebecca Wright - Trailfinder CF Adventure
Shona Bloodworth - Think Equine – website launch
Tamsin Furtado - Horses Inside Out: exploring equine obesity using a novel artwork approach
Faculty
Jenna Kenyani - NeuroQuest – Neurodiversity Boardgame