Professor Sir David Watson Award – shortlist announced

The ‘ Professor Sir David Watson Award for Community-University Partnerships’ recognises the combined efforts of community and university partners towards making a difference to the lives of people in their shared community.

The scheme, the first of its kind, will reward achievements by community and university partners working together to build a healthier, just, and sustainable community. The shortlist comprises:

Bournemouth University, England: BU PIER, a public involvement in education and research partnership

Cardiff University, Wales: Community Gateway, building a long-term partnership with residents of a Cardiff inner-city suburb.

National University of Sciences & Technology, Pakistan: Social Well-being, a community service volunteer club and community service learning course.

St. George’s, University of London, England: Inside Science, broadening access to science by contributing to the education programme that is offered to prisoners.

University of Victoria, Canada: Residential and Indian Day School Art Research (RIDSAR) contributing to reconciliation in Canada and resurgence in Indigenous communities through art based collaborative research and exhibition practices.

Wrexham Glyndŵr University, Wales: Outside In, service users and community members participation in the delivery of social work learning.

The award is supported by an international group of networks and leaders in the field including the Talloires Network, a global network of community-engaged universities that Sir David helped to build and lead, and Drs Budd Hall and Rajesh Tandon, the UNESCO co-chairs for Community Based Research. Sponsors also include the National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement, University of Winchester and Engagement Australia which helps develop best practice university-community engagement in Australia.

Sir David, who died in February 2015, created the University of Brighton’s award-winning Community University Partnership Programme CUPP which has supported scores of partnership projects over the past 12 years. Each year hundreds of academics, students and community partners work together to produce benefits for the community whilst enriching teaching and research. CUPP now supports other universities in the UK and across the world to develop similar initiatives in their own contexts.

Individual donors to the award fund will select the winning application, to be announced in September.

The University of Brighton will be re-running the award in future years and you can donate to the award fund.