Key areas for engagement

Activities working with young people from underrepresented and disadvantaged backgrounds, schools, teachers and their parents/guardians both in London and across the UK.

• Delivering interactive and engaging sessions within existing Outreach programmes to support young people’s interest and attainment in STEM and progression to university (for example; summer schools or long-term cohort programmes).
• Becoming an Outreach STEM Leader to plan and deliver hands-on activities in our dedicated spaces for young people – the Wohl Reach Out Lab in South Kensington and the Dangoor Reach Out Makerspace in White City.
• Tutoring or mentoring young people in schools or online with the Pimlico Connection, our A-level Maths tutoring programmes or at the Maths Homework Club in White City.
• Delivering a talk about your research area in a Meet the Researcher webinar and in schools, or contributing resources and case studies to our online STEM in Action topics.
• Creating CPD training and resources for teachers and school staff to help them share developments in STEM with their pupils.
• Being a school governor and joining the College’s School Governor’s Network.

Activities seeking to engage our local communities in White City, South Kensington, and around our other campuses. Such activities could include:

• Volunteering programmes whereby College staff and students work with community groups, for example to help them develop skills and confidence in technology related areas (for example the ‘What the Tech’ project led by the Business School);
• Relationship-building activities, including with local stakeholder groups, and activities to support consultation with the local community;
• Programmes to improve community education and health outcomes (for example the ‘Translating TB’ project led by the National Heart and Lung Institute);
• Programmes to engage community groups with our research and scientific work, including ‘maker’ and ‘hack’ activities and programmes in The Invention Rooms;
• Activities to help College staff and students get involved in community engagement, such as tours and events;
• Events to engage the local community with the research and teaching of the College.

Research and delivery of effective methods of public participation, involvement and engagement (PPPI/E) in research, for example in collaboration with the Patient Experience Research Centre (PERC) including:

• Activities associated with the recruitment of members of the public with relevant lived experience for focused public advisory groups/networks
• Activities associated with the recruitment of members of the public for larger public networks and/or the establishment of community health panels
• Activities associated with the ongoing business of public and community groups/networks
• Staff and student resources for patient involvement, such as training for PPPI/E
• Public newsletters and other communications and events aimed at engaging patients with health-related research and teaching of the College
• Digital platforms, such as the VOICE-Global online platform, to facilitate PPPI/E and connecting College staff and students with patient and community members
• Other public related involvement or engagement work

Activities seeking to engage the public with our research, such as:

• Flagship events to engage the public with the College’s research, including the annual Great Exhibition Road Festival, and Imperial Lates series running throughout the year, as well as other relevant events.
• Activities at White City such as the Saturday Science Clubs, half-term workshops and activity packs.
• Art-science collaborations including the poet-in-residence project.
• Work with young people such as our partnership with North Paddington Youth Club.
• Activities associated with the development of an institutional strategic plan for engagement with research and with culture change projects, such as the RCUK funded Catalyst Seed Fund project.

• Evaluation and monitoring of specific engagement activities, such as set-piece evaluation projects to identify the impact of specific community engagement initiatives in White City;
• Support for staff and students seeking to evaluate the effectiveness of their engagement work, for example through training and guidance;
• Support for staff who are seeking to demonstrate the impact of their engagement work, including within funding applications and case studies, such as for the REF, including through training and guidance;
• Activities that feed into evaluation and monitoring of the impact of institution-wide societal engagement initiatives, including surveys and focus groups.

• Training for staff and students in societal engagement, public engagement and outreach, evaluation and other related skills development and skills-sharing activities to enable high-quality engagement;
• Development and promotion of online resources, web pages; audiovisual content, social media and newsletter content to facilitate better communication of societal engagement and opportunities for staff and students to engage society with their work;
• Dedicated staff roles, consultants or project support.