XClose

UCL CULTURE

Menu
Take me to:
at:
Let's go
Let's go

Latest Beacon Bursaries opens

25th April 2017
UCL Engagement
Apply for funding for up to £2000 for UCL public engagement projects

We are excited to announce that the latest round of Beacon Bursaries opens today.

UCL staff and postgraduate research students can apply for up to £2000 to engage communities and organisations from outside UCL with their research or teaching.

Beacon Bursaries are designed to increase staff and postgraduate research students’ activity, skills, and understanding of public engagement.

Previous winners include Dr Evangelos Himonides whose Beat Boxing workshops brought together clinicians, patients with laryngectomies and young East London audiences to explore different techniques of speech rehabilitation and voice production. Iwona Bisaga’s project focused on the needs and aspirations of off-grid energy users in remote Rwanda, running energy mapping and photography workshops to better understand how energy shaped their lives.

Beatboxing after laryngectomy workshop. Credit: Dr. Evangelos Himonides

 

Energy access targets and aspirations project. Credit: Iwona Bisoga

 

 

UCL staff and postgraduate research students can apply for up to £2000 to engage communities and organisations from outside UCL with their research or teaching. Deadline for applications is 19th June 2017.


Share this: 
Other articles like this one:
A woman crouches down next to a toddler in front of a wall of backlit microscope slides
Grant Museum of Zoology to close for improvement programme until autumn 2023
20th Feb 2023
[[{"fid":"16156","view_mode":"super_xl","fields":{"height":"785","width":"1200","class":"media-element file-large","format":"super_xl","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"A woman crouches down next to a toddler in front of a wall of backlit microscope slides","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":"The Micrarium","field_caption_heading[und][0][title]":"","field_caption_heading[und][0][url]":"","field_caption[und][0][value]":"","field_float_left_right[und]":"left","field_file_image_decorative[und]":"0"},"type":"media","field_deltas":{"1":{"height":"785","width":"1200","class":"media-element file-large","format":"super_xl","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"A woman crouches down next to a toddler in front of a wall of backlit microscope slides","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":"The Micrarium","field_caption_heading[und][0][title]":"","field_caption_heading[und][0][url]":"","field_caption[und][0][value]":"","field_float_left_right[und]":"left","field_file_image_decorative[und]":"0"}},"attributes":{"height":"785","width":"1200","class":"media-element file-super-xl"}}]]The Grant Museum of Zoology, UCL will temporarily close in mid-March for a £300,000 improvement programme, reopening with a new narrative on ‘Species under Threat’ in autumn 2023. The Museum’s updated displays will tell a story of biodiversity loss, engaging visitors in the human impact on the planet’s diversity of life and how UCL research is responding to the planetary crisis.UCL’s Grant Museum of Zoology will close its doors to visitors at 5pm Saturday 11 March 2023 in order to undergo a £300,000 programme of improvements and enhancements during spring and summer 2023, reopening in autumn 2023.External funding for the improvement work was awarded jointly by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) and the Wolfson Museums and Galleries Improvement Foundation, and was announced at the Museum in December 2022.Established in 1827 as a teaching collection in comparative anatomy, the Grant Museum of Zoology is now home to around 68,000 zoological specimens, ranging from extant and extinct animal skeletons, fluid preserved specimens, taxidermy, glass and wax animal models, fossils and pinned entomology. The Museum is visited by around 40,000 people each year. The changes will maintain the Museum’s beautifully unique floor-to-ceiling displays and atmospheric charm. The theatrical space will have new interpretation to highlight the astonishing diversity of life in the natural world and explore how the collections can inspire and challenge us to rebalance our relationship with nature.The Grant Museum of Zoology will continue to host its renowned creative collaborations, between performers, artists, researchers and local communities, with a new emphasis on activism on the planetary crisis.Tannis Davidson, Head of Zoology and Science Collections at UCL, said:“The new displays will ensure that the Grant Museum continues to be a vital resource to learn about (and learn from) the animal kingdom by providing better care for our irreplaceable collections and highlighting how they play a role in biodiversity and conservation research”.Kat Nilsson, Director of Museums and Cultural Programmes at UCL, said:“We are grateful to DCMS Wolfson for funding this redevelopment. It will give a voice to both human and non-human species on biodiversity loss, while making stronger connections to UCL research working towards a more sustainable planet.”Visit the Grant Museum of Zoology's website
train_and_engage_news_image.jpg
Train and Engage funding call now open
31st Mar 2017
Funding calls are now open for the Public Engagement Unit’s Train and Engage programme.Now in its 6th year, the programme offers postgraduate students the chance to apply for grants of up to £1000 for activities that involve people outside the university.Alongside funding, Train & Engage provides advice, training and resources to support students in designing, developing, delivering and evaluating their own public engagement project.Previously funded projects have been diverse. From Dr David Roberts’ Haggerston Estate Open House Weekend to Dr Melissa Bovis’ How small are we talking. One involved a series of participatory events exploring urban change and social housing, while the other used a range of myth-busting games to examine concepts of nanotechnology and nano-scale. Dr Roberts built on his extensive engagement experience to organise a range of events and performance at the now demolished Haggerston Estate. Turning the traditional architectural tour of the London Open House Weekend on its head, he invited current residents and visitors to take part in telling the story of the estate. Ultimately offering an opportunity to reflect on the changing state of housing in London.Rural Wales formed a rather different backdrop for Dr Bovis’ interactive, games event. Using family-favourites such as ‘Noughts and Crosses’ and ‘Play Your Cards Right’ to demonstrate the size and scale of ‘nano’ to audience members at The Green Man Festival 2014. As well as challenging common misconceptions about what is and isn’t possible in the world of nanotechnology.  As a result of the advice, experience and resources received through the Train and Engage programme both participants were able to take part in further public engagement events and to enhance their ability to embed public engagement in their work.Have you previously attended public engagement training at UCL and would like to run your own public engagement project? Find out how to apply here. The deadline for funding applications is Tuesday 2nd May 2017.If you have any questions about Train and Engage, contact publicengagement@ucl.ac.uk.