Awarded Projects 2025-26

Projects 2025-26

Public Engagement Co-Creation with Students

New fund

The Public Engagement Co-Creation with Students Fund is a new fund launched in 2025-26 to support collaboration between staff and students on public engagement projects.

Aims of this fund

To provide students with paid employment and development opportunities in the field of public engagement.
To enable students to learn about public engagement as a two-way process between people inside and outside universities.
To support staff with the development of their public engagement projects.

First steps

The first round of funding was awarded at the end of 2025. On this page, you can read about the projects which will begin employing students in spring 2026.

Developing a training resource for community Health Champions

Kate Owen and Mohamed Alobeid with two student co-creators

This project is a partnership between WMS and Coventry Refugee and Migrant Centre (CRMC) to develop community "Health Champions" to work within their local communities to improve health literacy relating to UK health services and provide health promotion in line with the new NHS strategy. The six-session training program is developed in partnership with the Health Champions (HCs) who are all refugees and migrants themselves.

This funding will be used to employ two students to work with the Health Champions on developing activities for the training course.

Developing engagement activities about soil artificialisation and wildlife

Ariane Demeure-Ahearne and Lou Sarabadzic with two student co-creators

The project aims at engaging a range of audiences in our communities (students, children and adults) in creative and positive conversations about reducing soil artificialisation and protecting wildlife. The stimulus of the activities will be the poetic manifesto ‘Seul le Sol’ that the writer Lou Sarabadzic published in a French children’s book in 2024.

This funding will be used to employ two students to collaborate with us on translating the poem and on co-designing engagement activities.

Developing engagement activities about palaeontology

Daniel Cashmore with two student co-creators

Fossils can spark the imagination, and they can be a fantastic platform to engage younger audiences with scientific discovery and methodologies. The evolution of life on this planet and where our species fits within this is fundamental context to many other scientific fields.

This funding will be used to employ two students to collaborate with staff on developing engagement activities for children and young people on the topic of evolution.

Developing engagement activities about AI

Hesam Khajehsaeid and Fatemeh Shahbazi with two student co-creators

This project aims to reduce the public-AI knowledge gap by providing hands-on AI co-creation experiences for the local community. Participants will engage directly with AI tools to generate ideas, artworks, and problem-solving concepts, experiencing AI as a collaborative partner rather than an abstract or threatening technology. The project will collect pre- and post-event public perception to measure changes in public understanding, trust, and confidence in AI.

This funding will be used to employ two student co-creators, who will help design the engagement experience by developing evaluation surveys, communication materials, and accessible public-facing guides.

Developing engagement activities about online scams

Michaela Gummerum and Pip Brown with two student co-creators

This project aims to find out what young people’s experiences of online scams are, and then to develop public engagement materials and activities to inform young people and the general public about online scams and how to identify and resist them.

This funding will be used to employ two students to contribute to both stages of the project.

Apply for funding

Find out more about this fund and how to apply.