This series of sessions is tailored to support UCL postgraduate research students interested in developing and applying their public engagement knowledge and skills.

2023 - Train and Engage is currently paused and under review  

For questions, queries or concerns contact: publicengagement@ucl.ac.uk.

Training 2021 - Now completed

The interactive sessions provided practical opportunities to explore the variety of ways in which researchers can effectively interact with and involve public groups.

The sessions were open to students of all backgrounds and levels of experience. Participants completed a series of weekly online practical group sessions and self-guided information sessions running over 6 weeks during July and August 2021.

This course covered:

• An introduction to public engagement and related terms
• An introduction to some of the practical approaches and methods for public engagement
• How to think through project design, management and evaluation
• Sourcing funding and securing further engagement experience

Those who completed the training are now eligible to apply for Public Engagement grants of up to £1,000.

Session Dates

The course comprised of six core sessions. This included three online modules that you can complete in your own time and three face-to-face sessions (each run twice- select day and time appropriate for you). These first six sessions were compulsory for course accreditation. There was also an optional seventh session which presented some funding and further training opportunities available.

Session 1 - w/c 19th July:  Introduction to PE (online module accessible last week of July)

Session 2 - Practical PE (live sessions) 

• 28th July: 14.00 - 16.00 or 30th July: 10.00 - 12.00

Session 3- w/c 2nd Aug: PE as part of your research grant (online module)

Session 4- w/c 2nd Aug: Practical skills for PE (online module)

Session 5- Challenge sessions (live sessions)

• 9th Aug: 14.00 - 16.00 or 11th Aug: 10.30 - 12.30

Session 6 w/c 16th Aug: Project management and evaluation in PE (live sessions)

• 16th Aug: 10.00 - 12.00 or 19th Aug: 10.00 - 12.00

Session 7- w/c 23rd Aug: Funding for PE (optional live session(s))

• 26th Aug: 10.00 - 11.00

Funding 2021 - Now completed

Our funding scheme is generally open to UCL graduate students who has completed Train and Engage over the last few years. The schemes allows those who have completed the training to apply for up to £1000 of funding to implement their public engagement ideas. Funded projects are supported by the UCL Engagement Team with advice, experience and resources to help as you design, develop, deliver and evaluate your project.

Funding round is now closed, but should reopen in late 2022. 

For reference here is the documenation for last year's fundign round.  

The application form can be downloaded here. 

The guidance can be found here. 

We also have a document answering some practical questions about receiving and spending the funding.

In July 2020 we funded 7 projects. Read more about them here.

In December 2021 we funded 8 projects. Read more about them here.