Celebrating the Engagement Academy: 7 years and over 100 members of staff

Engagement Academy Graduates 2024-2025

Over 100 people have now completed Imperial’s Engagement Academy – read about this year’s diverse and creative cohort.

The seventh year of Imperial College London’s Engagement Academy came to a close on Wednesday 30 April with a celebration in South Kensington. 

The Engagement Academy is a seven-month programme, co-delivered by Imperial’s Public and Community Engagement Team and Science Communication Unit, and accredited by the Institute of Leadership. Each year a cohort of staff take part to develop their societal engagement practice through practical work and experimentation. This year involved staff from across Imperial’s Faculties, including senior academics, fellows, research associates, administrators and a range of engagement, communications and outreach professionals. Amongst the group finishing in 2025 was the Academy’s 100th participant, so here we take a look back at a programme which has been a vibrant and dynamic addition to Imperial’s research culture since 2017. 

Engagement Academy 2025 

Across seven monthly sessions from October 2024 to April 2025, 16 colleagues took part in over 40 hours of workshops, seminars, a museum visit, 19 guest speakers, mentoring, activity creation and more, on topics from evaluation and exhibitions to poetry and podcasting.  

Opening the celebrations on Day 7 was Charlotte Coales, Engagement Manager in the Public and Community Engagement team. Charlotte, who has co-led the delivery of the Academy since 2022 said “the Academy is a place where we can foster the development of an engagement community amongst staff, and to encourage societal engagement as an integral part of our work, helping Imperial to grow and to create mutually beneficial relationships with society.” 

“From the Invention Rooms to Cameroon” 

Also speaking at the celebration event, Dr Amy Seakins, Head of Engagement (Evaluation and Capacity Building), shared her congratulations to every participant, and thanked managers who supported their staff to engage in this unique and fulfilling programme. “One of my favourite parts of my job is each year seeing the ideas from the Academy cohort come to life. This year our participants are planning activities taking place as locally as The Invention Rooms, White City, and as far as Cameroon”. The 2024-25 projects can be seen here, ranging from an engagement activity addressing how African languages are being left behind by AI language models such as ChatGPT, to a co-created play exploring how we can better engage women in health research. 

Amy spoke with pride on both the diversity of ideas and outputs from the group, as well as the drive of its individual members: “I’m struck by how many people want to inspire the next generation of scientists and embed public involvement into research. Young people are lucky to have opportunities like the ones developed by this cohort, who are playing a key role in the expansion of societal engagement at Imperial”. 

Split into five buddy groups, the cohort presented the projects they had developed whilst taking part in the Academy in a range of creative ways. Echoing one of the exercises in the course, one team created a ‘top tips’ guide to scientific communication using only the top 1000 most common words in the English language. No easy task, seeing as ‘science’ is not on the list! “The depth of the course surprised me” noted Jose Louro De Sousa, Engagement Officer (Research Culture) in Library Services; “there is much more to learn about engagement than one might think – planning the activity and bringing it to life is only a fraction of it.” 

New skills, new connections 

Engaging the public is a great way to find meaning and enjoyment in your work, described Inaam Ullah, Academic Professional in Life Sciences. The cohort shared that their new skills and knowledge of engagement practice are already helping them to see tangible results in their work. “In addition to being an intellectually interesting course with really supportive teachers and peers, I have gained so many practical skills” said Claire Dilliway, Programme Manager in Earth Science and Engineering. “I have new skills and resources to call on for all aspects of engagement and evaluation and feel confident in applying these techniques.” 

One participant, Dash Berezina, Chemical Biology Technician, reflected on how the Academy shone a light on some important tweaks she could make to her engagement activities, and how this has helped her to feel growth in herself as a researcher. Several participants mentioned how their confidence in speaking, presenting, and developing ideas had increased, but the most common takeaway was the support and network-building, with the cohort appreciating connecting with people they wouldn’t otherwise work with. As Jose put it: “Meeting the diverse range of people throughout the Academy – from lecturers and engagement practitioners, to a poet and even a podcaster – has been a highlight. Together with our mentors and the diverse group, the "human factor" was decisive in making this experience memorable.” 

Participation in the Engagement Academy leads to further involvement with public audiences as well as recognition and funding opportunities for staff. Looking at the seven-year long legacy of the Engagement Academy, over half of the total 104 participants throughout those years have gone on to be involved in centrally-organised engagement activities, with many more leading their own projects and supporting colleagues in engagement and outreach. For example, Academy participants have led talks, stands and workshops at the Great Exhibition Road Festival, been involved in Imperial Lates and other community events and initiatives. A further 12% of the total participants succeeded in obtaining Societal Engagement Seed Funding and winning President’s Awards for Excellence in Societal Engagement.  

Engagement – a state of mind 

Reflecting on her time in the Academy, Claire said “I fully recommend this course to anyone who is starting to think about engagement activities as well as more experienced people who might want to solidify their knowledge and plan an engagement activity.” Jose echoed this sentiment: “I believe the Academy should be attended by everyone, if possible – students, researchers, professional services staff, professors and more. Engagement is – or should be – a state of mind, a default framework that informs the way we think and act across Imperial.” 

Closing the celebrations was Felicity Mellor, Director of the Science Communication Unit, who outlined the importance of societal engagement for universities across the world in the face of a tide of anti-intellectualism and misinformation. She praised this year’s cohort in achieving “imaginative ways of drawing the human out of the science”, and for embodying the fundamentals of good societal engagement: meeting people where they are at, not assuming we know best, and listening as well as speaking. 

The Academy will return for its eighth year in Autumn 2025, with applications opening in August. If you would like to take part, details on how to apply will be shared on the Engagement Academy webpage and in the Societal Engagement newsletter. If you have any questions, or would like support or guidance when applying, you can book a 1-to-1 advice session with a member of the Public and Community Engagement team.