The Community Engagement Small Grants scheme is designed to provide up to £1,000 of funding to support activities which engage with community-based organisations and use the research, teaching, or core business of Queen Mary to develop and deliver projects that address needs identified by the local community.
The funding to support this activity has come from the Queen Mary’s Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF) allocation, which has been awarded by UKRI to specifically support and develop knowledge exchange activities between the University and the wider world. For more information on how HEIF is allocated and the activities it supports, please refer to the UKRI website.
Full information on the criteria of the scheme can be found in our Small Grants Guidance 2023-24 [PDF 211KB] document.
All applications to the Community Engagement category must meet the following criteria:
Applicants must be current staff or students at Queen Mary, with an end date no sooner than August 2024. We welcome applications from staff and students at all career stages—and this is not used as a criterion in the selection process.
Lead applicants must be the individuals who will be responsible for delivering the project and subsequent reporting. External applicants are able to apply to the scheme as named co-applicants if collaborating with Queen Mary staff or students on a project.
To ensure that applications engage external publics with Queen May research, teaching, or services, all submissions must have at least one applicant based at the University who will be held responsible for assisting in the delivery of projects and reporting on outcomes.
Projects must be intending to complete their activities and associated spend by the end of the financial year on 31st July.
The Centre for Public Engagement strongly encourage that all individuals considering applying for a Small Grant familiarise themselves with the Application Guidance document and seek support from the team on the development of their applications. Projects that seek support from the CPE are more successful at panel review.
The Guidance Document contains key information on the scheme which will help strengthen your submission and will support your project if successful.
Small Grants Guidance 2023-24 [PDF 211KB]
The CPE hold regular fortnightly Advice Surgeries to support people with public engagement. The team would be happy to discuss your project and application to the Small Grants during one of these sessions.
As they are not involved with the panel review, the CPE are able to read and give advice on applications to the scheme ahead of their submission.
If you would like the team to read your draft application, you can download a copy of the Draft Small Grants Application Form 2023-24 [DOC 37KB] to fill out and email to the team for feedback. You must submit this to the team at least one week ahead of the funding deadline you intend to submit for.
The Small Grant Scheme is open now for applications using the Microsoft Form (below or open in a new window). Forms must be filled out and submitted by the 15th of the month to be included in that month's funding round. Any that miss this deadline (i.e. submitted on the 16th) will be considered in the following month.
Please note: we will not accept any applications submitted to us via the Word document; they must be submitted through this form (below) when the round opens. If for any reason the form does not work on your browser, please let us know by emailing publicengagement@qmul.ac.uk and we arrange alternatives if appropriate.