Community Gateway, Grange Pavilion and Grange Pavilion Youth Forum shortlisted for Times Higher Education Awards 2025

Cardiff University has been shortlisted in the Outstanding Contribution to the Local Community category.

The submission ‘Community Gateway, Grange Pavilion and Grange Pavilion Youth Forum: A decade of transformative partnerships’ is one of six projects from across the UK to be recognised in the category.

The ‘Outstanding Contribution to the Local Community’ award is presented to the individual, team or institution that has made the most imaginative attempt to aid the wider community socially, culturally or economically.

Shortlisted candidates have been picked according to:

• The background to and context of the initiative
• The nature of the work and the challenges involved
• Evidence of demonstrable progress or success
• How the project has made a difference to the target community
• How staff and students contributed to the success of the project

The following points were highlighted in the Community Gateway, Grange Pavilion and Grange Pavilion Youth Forum application:

• Development of a thriving and ‘fiercely loved’ community-led facility where local communities and University members can pursue passions and trial social innovations which are being adopted by the third and public sector
• Increasing students’ connectedness to Cardiff’s communities and nurturing students as compassionate citizens
• Enablement of communities to successfully influence University strategy and policy
• Increasing challenge-led and coproduced research in local communities
• Increasing community belonging, ownership and civic action in Grangetown
• Mobilisation of a movement of young leaders in Grangetown

Professor Mhairi McVicar, Community Gateway Project Lead, said: “The Community Gateway team are delighted to have had a joint application with Grange Pavilion Youth Forum and Grange Pavilion shortlisted, as a recognition of the strength of our decade-long and ongoing community-university partnership. Congratulations to all partners in Grangetown and Cardiff University who have contributed to this achievement, as well as to all fellow finalists in the category!”

The awards ceremony will take place on 13 November in the Edinburgh International Conference Centre, where winners will be announced.