Faculty of Science and Engineering Better World Initiatives 2024

Opportunities to inspire our Faculty community to explore new ideas or accelerate existing projects, which directly relate to one or more of the FSE SREDIA annual priorities.

Staff and students can apply for a grant of up to £1000.

Funding costs can include, but are not limited to the folowing:

• Resources (e.g. online and printed material), including payment for support to help create new material
• Implementation costs (e.g. project consumables)
• Subsistence and travel (travel should be the most sustainable transport for the journey and alternative means of meeting such as Teams / Zoom should be considered)
• Venue and/or equipment hire
• Visitor/speaker fees and expenses (suggested maximum of £250 per speaker)
• Refreshment costs
• Photography and filming (and editing) costs.

Costs cannot include requests for IT equipment or other items that would normally be requested through School or Institute equipment and resources budgets.

We are looking for members of our staff and student community to help us drive our Environmental Sustainability priorities for 2024/25, therefore welcome applications to help the Faculty: 

• Contribute to the success of University sustainability targets including those relating to LEAF (or equivalent) accreditation in laboratories and single use plastics in alignment with agreed strategies and action plans.
• Co-ordinate the reduction of FSE's environmental impacts through: reducing scope 3 carbon emissions; enhancing responsible procurement and managing life cycle of materials.

The total fund available is £5000 and we anticipate this being allocated to one large project, however we are open to applications that are requesting less than this if they address these priorities.

Applications will be assessed against:

1. Contribution to UoM sustainability.
2. Ability to measure improvements delivered through the project.
3. The viability of the project based on the funding requested.

All other criteria and rules of the Better World Initiatives will apply.

We are looking for members of our staff and student community to help us drive our EDIA priorities for 2024/25 and are therefore putting out a call for people (individuals or teams) to explicitly address either:

• Producing training, resources or support to staff or students to accelerate our progress towards a more inclusive culture that challenges exclusionary or discriminatory practices and fosters a sense of belonging for all.

Or

• Facilitate FSE staff or student voice regarding EDIA by setting up or partnering with existing University Staff / Student Networks to run self-governing / sustaining EDIA community networks in the Faculty.  Applicants for this pot would be expected have lived experience of the group they were looking to set up, and would need to run at least one event this academic year.  We would also expect that this group could become a sounding board for the Faculty to be able to understand community voices and feed into the work of the EDIA team in the Faculty / Schools.

Projects will be assessed on an individual basis and will need to directly address either of the priorities listed here.

The total fund available is £5000.  For the most impactful project, this could potentially be allocated to one application. However we anticipate funding a number of projects to address these needs.

All other criteria and rules of the Better World Initiatives will apply.

We are looking for members of our staff and student community to help us drive our Engagement priorities for 2024/25 and are therefore welcome applications to deliver projects that enable meaningful engagement with the public, community partners, civic groups, or other external partners to deliver a positive impact at a local or national level.

We are particularly interested in initiatives that focus on these areas:

1. Aim to promote engineering careers and study to (pre-16) girls (Athena Swan priority area).
2. Projects engaging priority audiences outside of a school or family setting, such as youth and sports groups.
3. Links to other SREDIA priority areas (EDIA/ES).

Projects will be assessed on an individual basis and will need to directly address either of the priorities listed here.

The total fund available is £5000.  For a particularly impactful project, this could potentially be allocated to one application, however we welcome applications for smaller amounts and will consider funding a number of projects to address this priority.

Applications will be assessed against:

• The output / impact that is trying to be achieved
• The impact and reach appropriate to the level of funding
• If the initiative is feasible within the timescale and budget
• Whether the initiative is engaging a priority audience (either widening participation, under-represented in the undergraduate population, under-served community, or low science capital).

All other criteria and rules of the Better World Initiatives will apply.

The SREDIA team encourage the following ways of working:

• Ambitious
• Collaborative
• Embedded
• Evidenced
• informed
• Pro-active

We expect applicants to also embrace these values that will be used to assess applications as described below.

Ambition

The proposed initiative should be innovative and creative in its aims, planning, delivery and/or outcome. It should clearly outline how it links to and takes forward an objective within the SREDIA priorities.

Collaboration

Where possible, your project should draw skills, experience and knowledge from a breadth of people. This may mean working across teams, departments or groups. Clearly define in your project proposal how you have considered working collaboratively and the value this will bring.

Embedded practice / principles or shared learning

For projects that will not be ongoing or sustained, we would look to fund projects as long as learning is shared or its practice benefits future work.

For projects that are sustained or have the potential to be scaled up, describe how this would be funded in the future as Better World Grants are not intended to be used for the same projects with the same outcomes year on year.

Evidence informed

Your application should demonstrate that you are addressing a need that is known in the Faculty or sector, or solving a problem that has been recognised within a Department. Also describe how you will gauge the impact of your initiative and how this will be measured.

Pro-active

The proposed initiative should address one of the SREDIA priority areas and you will need to explain why this initiative is a suitable response.

Funding requests will need to be based on realistic costs and where additional funding is required, we will expect this to have been identified and ideally secured.

You will need to explain how your initiative will be delivered within the cost and time constraints.

Successful applicants are expected to meet the following requirements:

• Provide a project update halfway through the project to share progress.
• Complete a simple ‘end of project’ report to demonstrate how you have made a difference. Summarising the initiative, outcomes, impact the initiative had, learning and expenditure. This report could then form the basis of your entry into the next University or Faculty Social Responsibility Awards.
• Showcase your project's work. For example, at the Better World Celebration event; on social media; a hub post; or as a case study for Social Responsibility reporting.
• Work with the Social Responsibility team to enable them to capture imagery of your working project and represent your project with images in their future Social Responsibility Reports, webpages and other media. You wil be provided with a copy of these images for your own purposes.
• Return any non-spent funds, giving notice by 30 June 2024 and returning to us by 31 July 2024.

Please note: All projects must be delivered by the successful applicants and there is no operational support available. However, information, guidance and advice can be provided around event organisation, such as: publicity, registration, organising filming or photography.

The application form will ask you to provide:

• A brief overview of your proposed initiative, including why you want to do it, who will benefit and the intended impact
• Full breakdown of what the budget will be used for
• In no more than 200 words, note how this initiative addresses a different challenge from other activities or provides an innovative solution to an existing challenge
• Thinking about collaboration, explain how your initiative brings in skills, knowledge, and experience from a breadth of people (max 200 words). 
  
• What is the priority that your initiative addresses and how will you measure and evaluate the impact of your initiative against it? (max 300 words)
• how could the initiative be embedded and sustained in the future, or the model of practice shared? (max 300 words)
• An outline of how you plan to deliver this initiative within the cost and time constraints.