Six university-led partnerships will receive a share of £60,000 to advance their civic engagement initiatives thanks to innovation funding from National Civic Impact Accelerator (NCIA) programme.
The (NCIA) is a pioneering initiative harnessing the collective power of the higher education sector to work for the good of their places, deepen their civic impact and amplify their contributions. Funded by Research England, it is led by Sheffield Hallam University in partnership with The National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement (NCCPE), The Institute for Community Studies, City-REDI, and Queen Mary University of London.
The funding supports the NCIA’s mission to enhance the higher education sector’s civic activities for local societal, economic, and environmental benefit, helping universities maximise their contribution toward addressing societal challenges and policy priorities.

The funded partnerships and their initiatives include:
- Anglia Ruskin University: Developing employment opportunities on their Cambridge campus, providing local people with work experience and access to university resources for career development.
- University of Kent: Expanding their pioneering “Right to Food” initiative in partnership with the Food Foundation, creating a blueprint for other universities to follow.
- Lancaster University and University of Plymouth: Creating a toolkit for effective place-based community engagement and developing an online community hub to enhance dialogue with local communities.
- University of Staffordshire: Leading the Collaborative Value Initiative (CVI) with Teesside University, Anglia Ruskin University, and CityREDI at the University of Birmingham to support the Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise sector.
- Camberwell College of Arts, University of the Arts London: Establishing a civic fellowship focused on addressing health inequalities through the lens of insecure housing in South London, in partnership with Citizens UK and South East London Anchor System.
- The Bath Partnership: Developing a comprehensive understanding of Inclusive Innovation through collaboration between the University of Bath, Bath Spa University, Bath and North East Somerset Council, and Bath College.
“The six innovative civic partnership projects receiving funding through the NCIA are set to make a significant difference in communities across England. From tackling food insecurity and employment challenges to developing tools for community engagement and social value measurement, these initiatives showcase the transformative potential of university-community collaborations.
“By supporting diverse and impactful projects, we’re not only fostering local innovation but also creating valuable models that can be adapted and scaled across the higher education sector. These partnerships exemplify how universities can drive meaningful change when working hand-in-hand with local partners to address pressing societal needs.”
The NCIA action learning process has provided the time and space for partnerships to test and trial different approaches to civic activity. The six projects funded through the programme give a flavour of the breadth and variety of civic work being undertaken in the action learning process and beyond.”
The innovation funding will support these partnerships in piloting and testing innovative practices while measuring their effectiveness in addressing civic challenges across England.
Notes to Editor
Additional partner quotes:
Neale Daniel, SHoKE Programme Manager at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU), said: “As a part of ARU’s strategic and civic responsibilities in nurturing vibrant university communities, this funding will transform an idea into reality by supporting the development of an initiative to support long-term unemployed individuals re-enter the workforce. We look forward to collaborating with Abbey People, a community charity, and engaging enthusiastic ARU staff volunteers to provide mentoring and employability support”
Professor Iain Wilkinson, lead for the Right to Food at the University of Kent said: “We are proud of what we’ve already achieved as the world’s first Right to Food University, particularly the opportunities it is creating for students to get involved in local community projects. The next step is to roll this out across other universities, ensuring wider local impact as well as a collective push to have the right to food recognised at the national level. This funding will support work to scale up and test the initiative with several pilot institutions – ensuring we develop the right tools and resources to have much broader influence and impact across the country. The scheme has also given us access to a wealth of knowledge and expertise about our wider civic activity through working with the NCIA.”
Sarah Rees, Head of Stakeholder Relations at Lancaster University, said: “Lancaster University is delighted to receive funding to further our commitment to civic engagement and to develop our partnership with the University of Plymouth. This project will build on our ongoing collaboration with key anchor institutions and our communities to ensure that local voices are heard and actively help shape responses to make a difference.
“Through this work, we will create a flexible toolkit for place-based engagement, which will be trialled in Lancaster District and Plymouth. The toolkit will support the development of an online community hub in Plymouth and a knowledge base in Lancaster District, helping anchor institutions, such as universities, better connect with the communities they serve and ensure their actions make a tangible difference to society.”
Jennifer Milligan, Head of Regional and Civic Engagement at University of Plymouth, said: “At the University of Plymouth, we are committed to fostering genuine and meaningful relationships with the communities we serve. By partnering with Lancaster University on this project, we aim to develop new, adaptable ways to ensure that community voices shape the decisions that affect them. This funding from the NCIA enables us to deepen our engagement, ensuring that our community hub becomes a vital platform for inclusive dialogue and civic collaboration.”
Hannah Guthrie, Head of Public Engagement at Camberwell, Chelsea and Wimbledon Colleges of Arts, said: “The innovation funding came at a perfect time for Camberwell College of Arts. The fellowship will explore how art and design can help address local issues and connect with broader community health efforts. By bringing together academics, local community organisers and health professionals, it will build alliances to translate intention into action through campaigning around health and housing inequalities, creating a shared framework for collaboration and measuring impact.”
The NCCPE
The National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement (NCCPE) seeks to support a culture change in the UK higher education sector through our vision, mission and aims. Our vision is of a higher education sector making a vital, strategic and valued contribution to 21st-century society through its public engagement activity. Our mission is to support universities to increase the quality and impact of their public engagement activity.
Find out more here: https://www.publicengagement.ac.uk/
The NCIA
The National Civic Impact Accelerator (NCIA) is an ambitious three-year programme to gather evidence and intelligence of what works, share civic innovations, and provide universities with the framework and tools to deliver meaningful, measurable civic strategies and activities. The programme, funded by Research England, part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), will create collaboration and policy and practice innovation involving universities, local government and business groups, and the community sector to drive place-based transformations. The NCIA is led by Sheffield Hallam University in close partnership with the National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement (NCCPE), the Institute for Community Studies (ICS), City-Region Economic Development Institute at the University of Birmingham (CityREDI), Queen Mary University of London (QMUL), and the OECD. The programme is also backed by the wider resources and partners of the Civic University Network.
The intensive programme of work will involve:
- Developing an overarching approach to capturing evidence of effective practice to inform decision making and maximise the value of civic activities.
- Developing an action learning cohort of universities and their civic partners, to test and develop innovative practical and strategic tools to support civic performance (being launched in this press release).
- Supporting the sector and its partners to put this into practice through intensive support and knowledge exchange activities through a programme of support tools, training, and communication to maximise the reach of all the learning and tools. Activities such as publications, workshops, webinars, and conferences to broadcast NCIA outputs to the HE sectors, support them to mobilise the learning and influence the design and implementation of HEI’s civic activities.
- Providing central coordination of the NCIA through the development and deployment of project management tools, stakeholder engagement, administration, logistics, risk management, and governance.
Press contact: Jo Beattie j.beattie@shu.ac.uk
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