Faculty of Science and Engineering Better World Initiatives 2024-2025

Opportunities to inspire our Faculty community to explore new ideas or accelerate existing projects, which directly relate to one or more of the FSE SREDIA annual priorities.

Staff and students can apply for a grant of up to £1000.

Funding costs can include, but are not limited to the following:

• Resources (e.g. online and printed material), including payment for support to help create new material
• Implementation costs (e.g. project consumables)
• Subsistence and travel (travel should be the most sustainable transport for the journey and alternative means of meeting such as Teams / Zoom should be considered)
• Venue and/or equipment hire
• Visitor/speaker fees and expenses (suggested maximum of £250 per speaker)
• Refreshment costs
• Photography and filming (and editing) costs.

Costs cannot include requests for IT equipment or other items that would normally be requested through School or Institute equipment and resources budgets.

We are looking for members of our staff and student community to help us drive our Environmental Sustainability priorities for 2024/25, therefore we welcome applications to help the Faculty share learning or develop an innovative approach/idea that contributes to achieving success in: 

• Achieving LEAF accreditation for more laboratories and workspaces in your Department
• Limiting the purchasing of single use plastics in your laboratory or Department
• Managing life cycle of materials.  

The total fund available is £5000 and we anticipate this being allocated to one large project, however we are open to applications that are requesting less than this if they address these priorities.

Applications will be assessed against:

1. The output/impact of the sustainable improvement
2. Ability to measure improvements delivered through the project
3. The viability of the project based on the funding requested.

All other criteria and rules of the Better World Initiatives will apply.

We are looking for members of our staff and student community to help us drive our EDIA priorities for 2024/25 and are therefore putting out a call for people (individuals or teams) to explicitly address either:

• Develop an intervention or idea that supports FSE staff or students to accelerate progress towards a more inclusive teaching culture, e.g. innovative awareness campaign, training, resources or activity/event 

Or

• Develop a group or network to facilitate FSE staff and/or student voice from a selected minoritised group.  Applicants for this funding would be expected have lived experience of the group they were looking to set up. We would also expect that this group could become a sounding board for the Faculty to be able to understand community voices and feed into the work of the EDIA team in the Faculty / Schools. 

Projects will be assessed on an individual basis and will need to directly address either of the priorities listed here.

The total fund available is £5000.  For the most impactful project, this could potentially be allocated to one application. However we anticipate funding a number of projects to address these needs.

All other criteria and rules of the Better World Initiatives will apply.

We are looking for members of our staff and student community to help us drive our Engagement priorities for 2024/25 and are therefore welcome applications to deliver projects that enable meaningful engagement with the public, community partners, civic groups, or other external partners to deliver a positive impact at a local or national level.

We are particularly interested in initiatives that focus on the following areas:

• Develop an innovative FSE Engagement activity or resource that enables and supports our disabled staff/student community to develop/take part in engagement activities targeted at enhancing under-16 students access into, and experience of, FSE subject areas.

OR

• Develop an innovative FSE Engagement activity or resource supporting engagement of Black British students in Natural Science or Computer Science subjects, in support of priority audiences highlighted by the Race Equality Charter.

OR

• Develop a project enhancing civic engagement (including service learning) in FSE, or extend the learning from an existing civic activity to a different group, Discipline or Department.

Projects will be assessed on an individual basis and will need to directly address either of the priorities listed here.

The total fund available is £5000.  For a particularly impactful project, this could potentially be allocated to one application, however we welcome applications for smaller amounts and will consider funding a number of projects to address this priority.

Applications will be assessed against:

• The output / impact that is trying to be achieved
• The impact and reach appropriate to the level of funding
• If the initiative is feasible within the timescale and budget
• Whether the initiative is engaging a priority audience (either widening participation, under-represented in the undergraduate population, under-served community, or low science capital).

All other criteria and rules of the Better World Initiatives will apply.

The SREDIA team encourage the following ways of working:

• Ambitious
• Collaborative
• Embedded
• Evidenced
• Informed
• Pro-active.

We expect applicants to also embrace these values that will be used to assess applications as described below.

Ambition

The proposed initiative should be innovative and creative in its aims, planning, delivery and/or outcome. It should clearly outline how it links to and takes forward an objective within the SREDIA priorities.

Collaboration

Where possible, your project should draw skills, experience and knowledge from a breadth of people. This may mean working across teams, departments or groups. Clearly define in your project proposal how you have considered working collaboratively and the value this will bring.

Embedded practice / principles or shared learning

For projects that will not be ongoing or sustained, we would look to fund projects as long as learning is shared or its practice benefits future work.

For projects that are sustained or have the potential to be scaled up, describe how this would be funded in the future as Better World Grants are not intended to be used for the same projects with the same outcomes year on year.

Evidence informed

Your application should demonstrate that you are addressing a need that is known in the Faculty or sector, or solving a problem that has been recognised within a Department. Also describe how you will gauge the impact of your initiative and how this will be measured.

Pro-active

The proposed initiative should address one of the SREDIA priority areas and you will need to explain why this initiative is a suitable response.

Funding requests will need to be based on realistic costs and where additional funding is required, we will expect this to have been identified and ideally secured.

You will need to explain how your initiative will be delivered within the cost and time constraints.

Successful applicants are expected to meet the following requirements:

• Provide a project update halfway through the project to share progress.
• Complete a simple ‘end of project’ report to demonstrate how you have made a difference. Summarising the initiative, outcomes, impact the initiative had, learning and expenditure. This report could then form the basis of your entry into the next University or Faculty Social Responsibility Awards.
• Showcase your project's work. For example, at the Better World Celebration event; on social media; a hub post; or as a case study for Social Responsibility reporting.
• Work with the Social Responsibility team to enable them to capture imagery of your working project and represent your project with images in their future Social Responsibility Reports, webpages and other media. You will be provided with a copy of these images for your own purposes.
• Return any non-spent funds, giving notice by 30 June 2025 and returning to us by 15 July 2025.

Please note: All projects must be delivered by the successful applicants and there is no operational support available. However, information, guidance and advice can be provided around event organisation, such as: publicity, registration, organising filming or photography.