Our aim remains: to carry out “Research that matters” by ensuring that the public are embedded and prioritised, not only in how we disseminate and discuss our research, but in every stage of design and implementation to ensure we realise our potential as a truly engaged university.
University of Birmingham, Watermark Action Plan, 2018
We were delighted to be awarded a Silver Engage Watermark by the NCCPE in November 2018. Whilst we were proud to have our commitment to supporting a thriving culture of high-quality public engagement recognised, we also sought to use the opportunity to clearly assess what the next stage of embedding PE would entail. Therefore we created and published our ambitious Action Plan for how we intend to develop support and grow our practices and processes over the three years to 2021. An outline of our Watermark Action Plan is available to download here.
One key aspect of our plans was to realise the potential of a new publicly-accessible hub for all types of engagement and knowledge exchange to be opened in Centenary Square, situated in the heart of Birmingham city centre, in Autumn 2021. At the time of writing this landmark capital investment project had not been officially named and was being known as the ‘Centenary Square’ project, but has now been christened The Exchange; a reflection of the dialogue and impact we hope the building will catalyse through an innovative public programme, engaged research, leadership and professional development activities.
