About the scheme

Staff and students can apply for funds to put towards conference fees, course fees, or travel and subsistence related to developing their public engagement skills. We particularly encourage applications to attend events relevant to your sector or career stage (e.g. a conference focussed on outreach in maths, or a training session specifically for early career engagers).

In exchange, you will have to demonstrate how you will meaningfully share the learning you gain with others in the 12 months following receipt of funding.

What do you mean by public engagement?

Engagement (also referred to as public engagement) is a term that describes how people working and studying at universities interact with external publics/partners to share knowledge, research, and expertise; foster collaboration on new ideas; or collectively co-produce new research, or new ways of working. Its aim is to create spaces that enable curiosity, exploration and conversation for a broad cross section of society. Through these interactions everyone gains valuable insights, in turn contributing to societal development and progress.

You must be attending this training/ conference for the purpose of developing skills which will help you to engage public audiences.

How will applications be judged

Applications will be checked internally by the WIE Team to confirm the funding will be used in line with the purpose of the scheme, and then awards are made on a first come, first served basis. Once the fund has been allocated, we will close to new applications until the start of the following term.

You will normally hear from us within two weeks regarding the outcome of your application.

How much funding can I apply for?

• Students can apply for a maximum of £500
• Staff can apply for a maximum of £200 (with the expectation that their department should also contribute towards the cost if it exceeds this amount)
• Please note you can only receive support from this fund once per academic year.

What types of events or training can I attend?

• The funding is to help you develop knowledge and/or skills in public engagement.
• The training session or conference you are attending must directly relate to public engagement work you are doing or plan to do, or that you plan to embed into your teaching.

• We particularly encourage applications to attend events relevant to your sector or career stage (e.g. a conference focussed on outreach in maths, or a training session specifically for early career engagers).

• We will not fund conference attendance for conferences that are not directly about public engagement/ outreach. For example you cannot ask for funding to attend a conference which will give you access to an audience you want to engage with; we see this as outside the scope of this fund. This also includes attendance at student conferences where the audience you would be engaging with is other students.

• We will not fund activity if we are hosting a masterclass on campus that covers the same content within the same academic year (for example we would not support you to pay to do an externally run presentation skills session as we regularly host these at Warwick).

Examples of conferences we will fund

• NCCPE Engagement Conference 1-2 May
• The BIG Event - for STEM Communicators - July

How much funding can I apply for?

Students can apply for a maximum of £500

Staff can apply for a maximum of £200 (with the expectation that their department should also contribute towards the cost if it exceeds this amount)

Please note you can only receive support from this fund once per academic year

Who can apply?

All Warwick staff and students can apply to this fund.

You do not have to be a WIE Fellow to apply, however they will have the first opportunity to apply each term before it’s advertised more widely to others.

From August 2023 we will be operating a 2 strike policy for no shows at our externally led masterclasses. If you book a masterclass and do not attend without cancelling your place 7 days in advance you will receive a strike. After 2 strikes we will no longer allow you to book for our masterclasses, and you will be barred from applying to this fund until the following academic year.

When should I apply?

You should apply at least one month before the registration deadline of the event you want to attend. This is to allow time for your application to be reviewed and for University financial processes to be followed. If you apply with less than one month's notice, we cannot guarantee that your booking will be made.

There is no restriction on when your conference takes place vs which fund you apply for. For example, you can apply in October for a conference happening in July, but you must spend the allocated funds by 31 July 2025. After this point (the end of the financial year) WIE no longer have the budget to allocate to you and any unclaimed expenses will be your own to cover.

This fund reopens at the start of each term. Awards are made on a first come, first served basis. Once the fund has been allocated, we will close to new applications until the start of the following term.

Please note you can only receive support from this fund once per academic year. If your application is unsuccessful, you are welcome to submit another one in the same year.

What do I have to do after I have attended the training or conference?

As part of your application, you will commit to both of the following:

• Take part in a Resonate event within 12 months of receiving funding.
• Share your learning with others within 12 months of receiving funding.

We will contact you to ask for an update on these so that we can monitor the impact of this fund.

Fund Dates

The fund is now open and will remain open until the budget has been spent for this term. Awards are made on a first come, first served basis (as long as the application demonstrates you meet our criteria) so there is no deadline as such.