Funded community projects
We offer support by funding innovative projects that make an impact.
For our UCL researchers wanting to get a creative practitioner involved, explore ways of communicating their findings in an engaging way, or needing a budget to repay community groups for their time, we have a number of funding streams to help support these projects.
To date, we have been able to support a hugely varied programme of participatory projects, working with diverse groups local to the UCL East campus and across London. Below is a selection to inspire you.
For info, contact engagement-east@ucl.ac.uk

Highlights from our past funded projects

Trellis projects
Flow Unlocked
This creative autistic-led collaborative project highlighted the importance of relationships to autistic people, especially in the face of Covid-19.
Light Wave
This project afforded recognition to the east London d/Deaf community’s history, culture and language.

Community Engagement Seed Fund Projects
Windrush Cricket
In collaboration with Hackney Council and Hackney Museum, this oral history project explored the role of cricket in black British communities.
Diverse Voices
This community engagement project focused on diversity in health research participation using participatory photography.

Beacon Bursaries projects
RGB East
To explore vision and perception, east London locals were invited to upload their colourful photos that were turned into individual optical illusion videos and added to a map.
Contraception choices for trans and non-binary people
A virtual workshop aimed at health workers advising on contraception choices for trans and non-binary people.

Train and Engage projects
Bringing poetry, neuroscience and older adults together
This project set out to share the latest neuroscience discoveries in cognitive ageing with older people, and used poetry as a medium to get their feedback in how UCL research should evolve.

Listen and Respond projects
Listen and Respond was an initiative to explore how UCL as a whole can best “Listen and Respond” to the needs of communities and the voluntary sector in London as they confront and recover from COVID19. In partnership with UCL Student's Union Volunteering Service, the initiative is supported with funding from UCL East, UCL Culture and Innovation and Enterprise.
Co-designing services for young east Londoners during COVID-19 and beyond
Responding to the challenges of growing up in east London, this project employed six local young designers to create a solution that helps improve their access to employment..
SOLO: Surviving or Thriving
A creative participatory project exploring how freelance creative practitioners in east London have been adapting their work in response to the COVID-19 crisis.
RE-INVENT Digital Pilot
Collaborating with artists, young ambassadors (11-14) and youth workers, UCL's Connected Environments team co-created a series of interactive online VR studios to creatively engage young people during lockdown.