Vision

making in the invention rooms

Our vision is to support and empower the local community through science, innovation and collaboration. 

Goals

Our ambition is to make science and innovation accessible to everyone in the community in the area surrounding the White City Campus, and to increase social connectedness, confidence, wellbeing and transferable skills.

  1. Empowering - To increase scientific knowledge and understanding, and equip local people with skills of the future
  2. Inclusive - To create a campus that is accessible to everyone in the community, giving everyone the opportunity to benefit
  3. Collaborative – To work together to ensure our research and innovation is people-centred, relevant and responsive to the needs of the society

Approach

Understanding

  • Listening to the local community, learning about local challenges and forming trusting relationships based on understanding and mutual respect is at the heart of our work.

Partnership working

  • Throughout everything we do, we work with local organisations and residents to co-design activities that are in response to local need.
  • We form mutually supportive partnerships with local community organisations, sharing time, expertise, contacts and space.
  • There is amazing work being done by local organisations throughout the area, so we take care not to duplicate, but complement and support this work to increase our collective impact.

Engagement is a journey

  • For some members of the community, it can take time to build trusting relationships and encourage the belief that engagement with a university is for them. Because of this, we offer a range of opportunities and activities, from ‘light touch’ events that might start a person’s engagement journey to higher intensity programmes that have greater long-term impact.  

Our work

Themes

We largely work within five themes, which are based on the community’s needs and Imperial’s expertise:

The Invention Rooms

The Invention Rooms is our community shared space. It’s home to the Dangoor Reach Out Makerspace, the Advanced Hackspace and the Interaction Zone. This unique facility is where the majority of our collaboration with the community takes place – it’s a friendly and welcoming space where the community, staff and students come together to learn, innovate and research.

The community collaboration story so far