The IHE Engagement Awards recognise excellence in public engagement within the healthcare engineering and digital health community at UCL.
Developing a culture where public engagement is embedded into practice and valued by staff requires support, encouragement and recognition of effort and achievement. We know there are teams and individuals from across UCL who are delivering phenomenal and innovative public engagement activities in our field. The IHE Engagement Awards aim to recognise and celebrate the people undertaking these exemplary public engagement activities.
Our vision is that the IHE Engagement Awards will provide you with the formal recognition you deserve, alongside a powerful boost to your morale (and your CV!).
Check out the winners from previous years:
Eligibility
To be eligible:
- Activities must relate to healthcare engineering or digital health research.
- Activities must have been led by a current UCL student or staff member.
- Activities must have taken place between April 2025 and April 2026.
- Projects can still be ongoing, but you must be able to describe the evaluation and impact of your activities so far – so keep this in mind!
We welcome applications from students, researchers, and professional services staff members at any stage of their careers.
We recognise that most projects are a group endeavour, so please list all the team members involved in your project (this will not be counted as part of the word limit), but name one individual to act as the main point of contact.
Award categories
The process will run on self-nomination for one of the following categories:
PhD and early-career researchers
This award recognises the outstanding public engagement efforts of PhD students and early-career researchers (within five years of their PhD) who have led their own projects or made significant contributions to an activity. It acknowledges individuals who have demonstrated exceptional skill in effectively engaging with the public, communicating their research, and fostering meaningful interactions that enhance public understanding and appreciation of healthcare engineering.
Community engagement and patient and public involvement (PPI)
This award acknowledges individuals or teams working within healthcare engineering who have actively and effectively engaged with specific local communities or patient groups as part of their research process. Recipients will have demonstrated a deep understanding of community needs, successfully engaged community stakeholders, fostered collaborations, and implemented initiatives that have positively impacted the lives of community members.
Co-production
This award celebrates exceptional collaborative efforts, recognising partnerships between researchers and external stakeholders that have led to the co-creation of knowledge, resources, and solutions. It highlights initiatives that have promoted equal involvement of all partners in the research process through mutual learning and shared decision-making, demonstrating exemplary co-production practices and the value of inclusive collaboration within healthcare engineering research.
Communicating research
This award recognises individuals or teams who have effectively communicated their healthcare engineering research to diverse audiences outside the academic community. Recipients will have demonstrated outstanding science communication, employing innovative approaches such as storytelling, visual media, and interactive methods to make complex concepts accessible and engaging to a wider audience.
Institutional leadership
This award celebrates individuals or teams within UCL who have played a key role in fostering a culture of public engagement in healthcare engineering. It recognises leaders who have successfully embedded public engagement within their departments, faculties and beyond UCL, through initiatives that support, value and empower researchers and students to actively engage with the public in meaningful ways.
Submitting your application
We are looking for applications that clearly demonstrate public engagement excellence, following the National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement definition:
“Engagement is a two-way process, involving interaction and listening with the goal of generating mutual benefit”.
Entries must consist of no more than 1,000 words and cover the following criteria:
- Project overview, aim and budget
- How did you identify, find, and collaborate with your target audience?
- How was the project idea developed? (Please describe the project’s purpose, the research it supports, and the planning involved).
- Describe how the project was delivered and implemented.
- How did you evaluate the project’s impact? What data was collected, measured, evaluated, and reported?
Please submit your entry using this Microsoft Form.
You can also upload supporting materials (photographs, press clippings, video links) in a PDF no longer than 3 pages.
Applications are now open!
Deadline: 19 May 2026, 11.59 PM.
Next steps
If you have any questions about the awards, please contact Alice Hardy, IHE Communications and Impact Manager: a.hardy@ucl.ac.uk.
Prizes will include a personalised certificate. Winners will be announced at the IHE Engagement Awards Ceremony on the 9 June 2026. Join us for drinks, nibbles, and networking, as well as an invited talk from Sarah Yardley, Associate Professor of Palliative Medicine. Book your place now!
IHE Engagement Delivery Group
This scheme is led by the IHE’s Engagement Delivery Group which drives our engagement and co-creation activities. This group is open to membership to anyone at UCL with a passion for public engagement who would like to take a leading role in the IHE’s engagement activities. Learn more.
