About us
Based at the Watershed Media Centre in central Bristol, the National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement [NCCPE] was established in 2008 as part of the £9.2m Beacons for Public Engagement initiative.
Beacons for Public Engagement
The Beacons for Public Engagement initiative is a four-year project designed to create a culture change across the higher education sector. It consists of a network of
- Six beacons which are university-based collaborative centres that help support, recognise, reward and build capacity for public engagement work. The six Beacons are based in Newcastle and Durham, Manchester, Norwich (UEA), UCL, Cardiff and Edinburgh.
- The NCCPE - we co-ordinate, capture and share learning between the Beacons and across UK higher education institutions [HEIs] and research institutes.
Find out more about the Beacons.
The NCCPE team
The NCCPE is a small core team of five, headed by Director Paul Manners and based in Bristol at the Watershed Media Centre in Bristol’s Harbourside.
Our partners
The Centre is hosted between the University of Bristol and the University of the West of England. Our partners include the BBC, Vitae, v - the young people's volunteering charity - and many others.
Our role
We support universities to engage with the public. We work with all the beacons to promote best practice in public engagement and provide a single point of contact for the whole higher education sector. We also work strategically with our key national partners to help develop work across the sector. You can read more about our vision for public engagement here.
Our funding
The Centre and the six beacons are funded by the UK Higher Education Funding Councils, Research Councils UK and the Wellcome Trust. More about the funders.
Our projects
The NCCPE is committed to developing projects that will contribute to our work.
All Our Stories To support the partnership between the AHRC (Arts & Humanities Research Council), HLF (Heritage Lottery Fund) and the BBC, the NCCPE will be working with the 21 AHRC funded universities and museums to maximise the help they can offer community groups as they develop research project bids for submission to the HLF's All Our Stories funding stream. To find out more about the projects funded by the AHRC and what help they can offer community groups to develop their research click here.
vinspired students We were supported by v, the national young volunteers service to provide compelling evidence of the impact of volunteering on students, communities and institutions, and demonstrate the unique contribution that universities can make through the strategic management of volunteering. The programme was delivered between 2009 – 2011, you can find out more here.
National Action Research Programme In July 2009 we launched a major action research programme to support the embedding of Public Engagement in Higher Education. Its aim was both to generate insight into key issues from embedding public engagement and to generate action on those issues. Click here to find out more about the project.
