What is the Participatory Research Seed Fund?
The Participatory Research Seed Fund was a strand of Imperial's existing Societal Engagement Seed Fund during 2022 that supported staff specifically engaging in participatory research. Participatory research is broadly defined as public participation in research, with public participants contributing at any stage of the research lifecycle (eg. co-production, co-creation, citizen science).
The fund allocated in the region of £2,000 - £5,000 per project, and supported new or existing projects as a whole or only a specific segment of it, with room allowed for negotiation around total funding allocation (as long as the application justified any extra requirements).
Who was it for?
Our Participatory Research Seed Fund aimed to support staff to engage the wider public with our participatory research. Its aims were:
- Encourage and enable a wider range, and greater number of, Imperial staff to develop and deliver societal engagement initiatives that involve participatory research
- Encourage two-way engagement – where public participants are involved in the research process
- Engage a range of patients, publics, schools and local communities with Imperial’s research in a mutually beneficial way
- Identify research teams with research proposals, existing projects or potential research questions/areas that would benefit from participatory research
What we looked for
The Participatory Research Seed Fund proposals could include a discrete project or an intention in seeking funding for only a specific segment of it, and would include one or more of the following outcomes:
- Develop high-quality engagement with research activities in participatory research
- Extend previous successful societal engagement activities (e.g. reach a new audience group or develop a new collaboration through participatory research)
- Undertake pilots of pioneering participatory research activities to evaluate what works, ideally with a view to future development including securing external funding
- Develop skills of engaging in participatory research that benefits the wider Imperial College Community
How to apply
Applications are now closed.