Eighteen public engagement with research projects were shortlisted in the National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement (NCCPE)'s 2016 Engage Competition, across six competition categories. The winners were announced at the Engage Awards Ceremony on 29th November 2016 in Bristol.
Category: Engaging With Young People
Winner: COHESION Pilot
University of Leeds, Theatre of Debate, Batley Girls High School
The COHESION Pilot has brought together students from Performance Arts and Dentistry faculties with local school pupils to co-develop a play and debate about oral health, encouraging people to care for their teeth in a region where 12 year olds have the second worst dental health in the UK.
Finalist: Lleisiau Bach yn Galw Allan - Little Voices Shouting Out
Wales Observatory on the Human Rights of Children and Young People at Swansea University and Bangor University
This project supported children aged 7- to 11-years-old to carry out their own research within the framework of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and to advocate for change informed by their research.
Finalist: Developing Interventions to Raise Rabies Awareness in Rural African Communities
University of Glasgow, Ifakara Health Institute
This project sought to engage young people and communities in rural Tanzania in rabies prevention, working with the young people, taxi drivers, local musicians and radio producers to co-design effective new interventions.
Category: Health and Wellbeing
Winner: None in Three: Preventing Domestic Violence in the Caribbean
University of Huddersfield, Sweet Water Foundation, Florencena Consulting
None in Three is a domestic violence prevention project based in the Caribbean, collaborating on research with marginalised women and using computer games as an educational tool in schools.
Finalist: Our Health, Our Future
Manchester Academic Health Science Centre, Public Programmes at Central Manchester NHS Trust, University of Manchester, Manchester Schools Alliance
Our Health, Our Future enabled secondary school students to work with researchers to address public health research challenges in their local communities.
Finalist: SPHERE: Co-design and Co-production in a Home Sensor System for Health
University of Bristol, Knowle West Media Centre, University of Reading, University of Southampton
SPHERE is a large, multidisciplinary research project working with local communities to develop a unique system of sensors for the home to capture information about health-related behaviours.
Category: Working in Partnership
Winner: Older People as Co-Researchers: Developing Age-Friendly Communities in Manchester
University of Manchester, Manchester Institute for Collaborative Research on Ageing (MICRA), Manchester City Council, Whalley Range Community Forum, Chorlton Good Neighbours Neighbourhood Care Group, Age Friendly Whalley Range/Chorlton and others
This project involved older people as co-investigators leading a study designed to improve the quality of life in low-income communities and to develop neighbourhoods responsive to the needs of people as they grow older.
Finalist: Boingboing Youth Participation
University of Brighton, Boingboing Resilience Community Interest Company
Boingboing is a social enterprise that seeks to enhance positive mental health outcomes for young people - forming Communities of Practice to develop a shared approach to building resilience, and informing co-produced research.
Finalist: Fostering Hope: Shifting Public Perceptions of Refugee Children and Young People
University of Bath, TACT
Working with unaccompanied asylum-seeking young people who were in foster care, this participatory research project sought to shift public perceptions and encourage more families to foster refugee children.
Category: Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths
Winner: SMASHfestUK
Middlesex University, University of Greenwich
SMASHfestUK is an anarchic, interactive science festival which uses a narrative-driven and inquiry-led model of engagement to attract a young local audience, aiming to break down any barriers to inclusion.
Finalist: The Heart and Lung Repair Shop / The Heart and Lung Convenience Store
Imperial College London
The Heart and Lung Repair Shop and Convenience Store were science pop-up shops - empty retail units temporarily transformed into vibrant hubs for creative and playful science engagement with a local community audience.
Finalist: The Turtle Project
Queen Mary University of London, Fondation Maio Biodiversity, Projecto Vito Santo Antao, INDP Sao Vicente
The QMUL research team and their partner NGOs developed a science-driven and education-led conservation programme aiming to protect critically endangered sea turtles in Cape Verde – where previous attempts have failed.
Category: Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
Winner: Around The Toilet
Sheffield Hallam University, Manchester Metropolitan University, University of Leeds, University of Sheffield, Action for Trans Health, Queer of the Unknown Arts Collective, Greater Manchester Coalition of Disabled People.
Around the Toilet is an arts-based research project exploring the toilet as a place of exclusion and belonging which draws on people’s experiences and expertise to imagine how toilets could be different.
Finalist: City Witness: Exploring Medieval Swansea
University of Southampton, Queen's University Belfast, King’s College London
The City Witness project worked with partners in Swansea to research the city’s medieval heritage and make it accessible to local communities and visitors, through an interactive tour map linked to pavement markers and a game.
Finalist: The Lived Experience of Climate Change: A Story of One Piece of Land in Dhaka
Global Development Institute, University of Manchester, University of Dhaka
This project explored research through a ‘Pot Gan’, a traditional folk performance which encouraged slum dwellers, researchers, practitioners and policymakers to reflect on the day to day realities of living with climate change in Dhaka.
Category: Individual-led Projects
Winner: Eating for Eye Health
University College London, Manor Gardens Community Centre, University of Porto, NIHR Moorfields Biomedical Research Centre, Macular Society
Rose Gilbert engaged patients suffering from dry age-related macular degeneration through a focus group and a community cookery day, with patients exchanging insights with clinicians on how diet and nutrition can impact their eye health.
Finalist: Take 7: 7 Families, 7 Prepayment Meters, 7 Solar Roofs, 1 Estate
University of Sussex
Led by Nicolette Fox, Take 7 examined what happens when you give seven families, vulnerable to fuel poverty, the opportunity to generate and use renewable energy.
Finalist: Writing Back
University of Leeds
Georgina Binnie’s project targets loneliness and social isolation in both young and older people by matching University of Leeds students as pen pals with older Yorkshire residents, and encouraging them to engage with local archives.