University of Plymouth - Vice-Chancellor’s Community Research Awards

Benefit

Note: this programme has been discontinued. It was awarded from 2008 until at least 2013. The University of Plymouth has replaced it with the ‘Get Involved Awards’. The following section explains what the previous award was and refers to its current equivalent.

The University of Plymouth has funded local research projects with approximately 57,000 EUR (£50,000) per year, spread across at least five projects. These were not grants for individual students. Local charities, community groups and social enterprises in the South West of England identified a real-world problem, and the university matched them with academic researchers to help solve it. Projects to date have included water pollution in urban nature reserves, children’s bereavement, raising awareness of dementia amongst GPs, and sexting and online safety in schools.

The current programme: Get Involved Awards. If you are a community group looking for this kind of support, Plymouth University now presents the ‘Get Involved Awards’ instead. Under this programme, up to six projects are funded each year, with approximately 6,800 EUR and 9,100 EUR (£6,000 to £8,000) awarded to each. The funding is awarded to the research team and is intended to cover the costs of researchers and project implementation.

Eligibility

• Who can apply: Community groups, charitable organisations and social enterprises. Not individual students or researchers.
• Your project: You would like to carry out research on a local topic in or around Plymouth.
• Working with the university: You are ready to work on this project with a university researcher.
• Topic: Any issue within the community that you would like to understand or resolve.

How to apply

Submit a short expression of interest form to the ‘Get Involved Awards’ team. The university will review this and put you in touch with a researcher, with whom you will then work to complete the full application. Check the ‘Get Involved Awards’ website for the deadline for the current round.