UCL Provost’s Public Engagement Awards 2019

The annual awards recognise staff and students’ contributions to the local community and further afield through collaborative engagement based on partnerships with diverse communities. This collective activity makes a substantial contribution to UCL’s 2034 theme of being open and accessible to all.

This year’s award-winning projects illustrate UCL’s distinctive approach to public engagement, characterised by a focus on collaborative models of engagement, the involvement of diverse and often underrepresented public groups, and a spirit of experimentation to encourage wider learning.

Among the award-winners are Albert McEyeson, founder and director of Action Youth Boxing Intervention (AYBI). Based in Camden, AYBI is a community hub that offers support to young people at risk of gang involvement or who are already in gangs, alongside non-contact boxing training. Albert has been working with the UCL Centre for Co-production in Health Research to better understand the impact of their work in order to help them expand the AYBI’s programmes to communities in need across London.

Also recognised was Dr Briony Hudson (UCL Psychiatry), whose public engagement activities have contributed to growing recognition of the challenges faced by homeless people with advanced ill health in the media and UK parliament. Working with people with lived experience of homelessness, Briony launched the Homeless Palliative Care Toolkit to provide information and resources to frontline staff supporting those with significant health needs. 

PhD student Helen Greaves was acknowledged for her work as co-founder of the UCL Pond Restoration Research Group (PRRG) and the Norfolk Ponds Project (NPP). Helen’s public engagement centres around communication of UCL science on farmland pond restoration, including working with farmers and members of the public to transform areas of farmland to increase biodiversity in Norfolk and Lancashire.

In 2019, the Provost awarded seven prizes and commended teams and individuals for their efforts and achievements: from students to established academics, professional staff and community partners. The full list of winners is:

• Community Award – Albert McEyeson (Action Youth Boxing Intervention, a learning and development hub for the local community)
• Early Career Award – Dr Briony Hudson (UCL Psychiatry)
• Established Career Award – Professor Robert Mills (UCL History of Art)
• Institutional Leadership Award – Research for All, Professor Sandy Oliver (UCL Institute of Education), Pat-Gordon Smith (UCL IOE Press), Sophie Duncan (National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement).
• Professional Services Staff Award – Anouchka Sterling (UCL Brain Sciences)
• Student Engagement Award – Helen Greaves (UCL Geography)
• Team Award – Dr Lena Ciric (UCL Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering) and Dr Tse-Hui Teh (UCL Bartlett School of Architecture)

Laura Cream, Director of Engagement (UCL Culture), said, “It is a pleasure to celebrate the wide-ranging public engagement work being carried out with UCL, and to see our academics’ ground-breaking research  applied to life-changing community projects.”

“The more diverse those communities are that we collaborate with, the more impact we can make with our research and teaching.”

Links

• Provost’s Public Engagement Awards 2019
• UCL Public Engagement Team
• UCL Culture
• Homeless Palliative Care Toolkit
• Pond Restoration Research Group
• Norfolk Ponds Project

Images

UCL Provost’s Public Engagement Awards 2019. Photos courtesy of UCL Culture. Copyright: Photographer Natalia Janula