The Community Engagement Team
Who are we?
As part of Cardiff University's ongoing commitment for engaging more effectively with the public, the Community Engagement Team was established in November 2006. The Community Engagement Team (CET) is based in the Communications and International Relations division and is comprised of three members of staff.
The principle aims of the CET are to work closely with academic staff to disseminate effectively the University's research and knowledge to increase public awareness of and engagement with Cardiff's academic specialisms and expertise.
The Team works to support the engagement activities of the University’s Schools and Divisions, manage partnerships in engagement and co-ordinate multi-discipline or corporate-level engagement events.
What is public/community engagement?
Getting universities and communities to listen to and learn from each other is the main aim of public and community engagement in a university context.
Engaging in a meaningful way with its various communities and contributing to the cultural enrichment of Wales and the World are key aims in the University’s strategy.
What do we do?
The CET has contributed towards developing and embedding engagement within the University’s culture in a range of ways. Events supported by the team in the past two and a half years have reached more than 350,000 people, the equivalent of the entire population of Cardiff. Given that the Team’s costs have been approximately £425,000 over the same period, it has cost an average of £1.21 to reach each person.
The CET has made a major contribution to acquiring funding for engagement within the University, in particular by co-ordinating the bid for Beacons for Public Engagement funding and winning £1.2million to establish the Beacon for Wales.
How do we do this?
- Supporting Academic Schools in their own engagement activities.
This includes advising on event management, assisting with finding external funding, promoting any events aimed at the public or encouraging academic schools to take part in national events (such as National Science & Engineering Week). - Representing the University at a corporate level.
This includes bidding for funding for engagement activities and networking with other organisations external to the university, including our strategic and engagement related partners - Coordinating engagement activities on a cross-University level.
This includes in-reach activities (where members of the public come to the University) such as for public lectures or research related tours, out-reach activities (where we take the University's work outside, for example attending the Cardiff Harbour Festival, and virtual activities) and regular events mailings.
We are involved with a variety of projects and initiatives from public lectures, seminars and awareness weeks, to major events like the National Eisteddfod and the Royal Horticultural Society Spring Flower Show.
We can offer advice and assistance on all manner of things, from designing posters and event publicity material, to managing events and applying for public engagement funding.
The following pages contain information for staff and visitors to the Community Engagement Team web pages, please follow the links on the side of this page to find out more information about what we do, how we can help, forthcoming events, plus details about how to contact us.