Explore Awards
Supporting public engagement for researchers
Explore Awards
The Explore Awards aim to assist University of Plymouth researchers, with priority for Early Career Researchers, in a range of ways to support their public engagement with research.
How to apply
Explore Awards have now closed for 2026, please refer back to this website for 2027.
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HPre-proposal activity focusing on developing partnerships.
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HPiloting new ways of working with non-academic partners in collaborative ways, namely community groups and members of the public.
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HPiloting new public engagement methods that could be embedded in future research.
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HResearch proposal workshops with non-academic partners (e.g. research prioritisation).
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HCreating case studies and collating evidence of what works in public engagement with research, to share with others.
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HDeveloping new resources to support public engagement practice across the University.
Successful awards
The Explore Awards have supported researchers across a range of inspiring projects. From a community-led, food themed ‘people’s assembly’, through to innovative ways to identify and engage hard-to-reach people with liver disease.
The Explore Awards aim to assist researchers, with priority for Early Career Researchers, in a range of ways to support their public engagement with research. Take a look at our previous years of success...
2026 Award Winners
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Listening, Learning, and Co-Creating: Embedding Children’s and Parents’ voices in Nursing and Midwifery Research
Mrs Danielle Edge and Miss Nicola Fielding
Faculty of Health
This project aims to establish children and parents’ PPIE research groups to build sustainable partnerships between SNaM and local communities, by designing and facilitating public engagement events for local children, young people and their families, and community organisations, where we explore how children, young people, and families wish to be involved in shaping nursing and midwifery research within SNaM.
Faculty of Health
This project aims to establish children and parents’ PPIE research groups to build sustainable partnerships between SNaM and local communities, by designing and facilitating public engagement events for local children, young people and their families, and community organisations, where we explore how children, young people, and families wish to be involved in shaping nursing and midwifery research within SNaM.
We develop a framework to embed the voices of children, young people and their families within the existing SNaM PPIE and research strategies.
Cosmic Dust in the City: Engaging Communities in the Search for Urban Micrometeorites
Dr Stephen Grimes
Faculty of Science and Engineering
This project will engage the public in Plymouth and surrounding areas in an exciting scientific endeavour: the search for urban micrometeorites—tiny fragments of cosmic material that fall to Earth daily.
Faculty of Science and Engineering
This project will engage the public in Plymouth and surrounding areas in an exciting scientific endeavour: the search for urban micrometeorites—tiny fragments of cosmic material that fall to Earth daily.
Micrometeorites are a strategic asset for UK planetary science, providing pristine samples of the Solar System’s building blocks (asteroids, comets). They offer insights into early planetary formation, Earth’s atmospheric history, and climate evolution through modern and fossilized collections.
Young Voices and Future Nurses: Child-led Co-Creation of Nursing Curricula
Dr Kathrin Paal
Building upon AHRC IAA-funded research that explored how children’s nursing students and lecturers understand children as social actors in healthcare, this project takes the critical next step: involving children themselves in co-creating educational resources that will shape the future of paediatric nursing education.
This Explore Award will bring together primary school-aged children (aged 7-11, both with and without health conditions and/or hospital experiences) and children’s nursing students in collaborative workshops.
Building upon AHRC IAA-funded research that explored how children’s nursing students and lecturers understand children as social actors in healthcare, this project takes the critical next step: involving children themselves in co-creating educational resources that will shape the future of paediatric nursing education.
This Explore Award will bring together primary school-aged children (aged 7-11, both with and without health conditions and/or hospital experiences) and children’s nursing students in collaborative workshops.
Meaningful engagement with communities that mistrust institutions
Working with transmasculine individuals [trans men, non-binary people, masculine-presenting people assigned female at birth] we pilot participatory approaches centering community voice in determining whether, when, and how research should proceed.
These communities experience disproportionate violence, mental health challenges, and healthcare barriers, yet remain invisible in research. Whilst trans-women receive significant attention, transmasculine experiences are profoundly under-explored.
Many remain hidden, fearing harm from research that has historically pathologised their identities. Through pilot activities, we will test engagement approaches, explore community priorities, and create replicable frameworks strengthening the University's capacity for ethical engagement.
Recognising that traditional research methods (interviews, surveys) may exclude cautious participants, we introduce innovative, creative and sensory approaches including immersive technologies, and digital forms of storytelling as accessible alternatives that honour different ways of knowing and communicating.
2025 Award Winners
Under Ice, Fire and Water
Dr Jenny Gales
School of Biological and Marine Sciences
Faculty of Science and Engineering
This project aims to engage the public (schools, colleges, wider interest groups, researchers) with ocean exploration research, in the form of a 360-degree immersive film experience. The film will be showcased (over a 3–6-month period) at a range of international locations, including the Market Hall, Plymouth. The film will also be uploaded to publicly available online viewing platforms such as YouTube.
School of Biological and Marine Sciences
Faculty of Science and Engineering
This project aims to engage the public (schools, colleges, wider interest groups, researchers) with ocean exploration research, in the form of a 360-degree immersive film experience. The film will be showcased (over a 3–6-month period) at a range of international locations, including the Market Hall, Plymouth. The film will also be uploaded to publicly available online viewing platforms such as YouTube.
This film will stimulate discussion and collaboration between international researchers, bringing together a diverse range of people at the public engagement events and potentially driving future research questions and international partnerships.
Dementia Pathway – Journey Mapping Project
This project proposes to produce a journey mapping as a visual representation of the potential contact points between people with dementia and their care partners and dementia pathway providers in Plymouth using a fictional character (persona).
This is a pilot project to establish if journey mapping could be used as a way of collecting (qualitative) data collaboratively with people living with dementia, their care partners and health and care stakeholders and to support future research methodology and awards.
Making Brain-Imaging Procedures Dementia-Friendly
This project will engage directly with individuals with dementia, their carers, and relevant stakeholders in co-designing dementia-friendly protocols for brain-imaging studies. Building upon relationships with the Academic Partnerships Lead for Dementia to understand the best approach to engaging with the dementia community.
On project completion, it is expected that the project outputs will be used to inform a large-scale study that refines and evaluates the dementia-friendly brain-imaging protocols with the dementia community beyond Plymouth, nationally and internationally.
Research Village
As part of the 2025 annual Stoke Village Fun Day, the aims of the research village will be to provide opportunities for residents, researchers, and community organisations, to highlight and engage with what it is happening within their local community and to collaborate on health-related research that reflect and respond to the community’s priorities.
A key feature of the research village will be its collaborative design. Stoke community members will guide the development of the research village, from selecting health topics and projects to designing activities that encourage engagement through regular ‘health chats’ before the event.
A collaboration between Science and Theatre
Dr Kirsty Matthews Nicholass
School of Biological and Marine Sciences
Faculty of Science and Engineering
School of Biological and Marine Sciences
Faculty of Science and Engineering
“The Mushroom Show” is aimed at showcasing the integration of academic research and creative disciplines with public and community settings. This show explores how multigenerational relationships within society can benefit from lessons learned from fungi, with the aim to adopt cohesion with local communities. This mini-project focuses on how science and the arts can engage the community and inspire future scientists.
The film will serve as an educational tool that can reach a wider audience, beyond those who attend the show. By including “educational snippets”, the film will help introduce key themes in mycology and the role of fungi in the environment. Additionally, it will function as a “case-study” video within the University, demonstrating the impact of interdisciplinary collaboration and public engagement where researchers can enhance the outreach of their own research.
Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) – Educational Initiatives
This proposal seeks to enhance public awareness and engagement on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) through educational initiatives, including an exhibit at the Roman Baths Museum (the Roman Baths hot spring in Bath is a source of potentially novel antimicrobials), public workshops, and collaborative partnerships. The goal is to foster responsible antimicrobial use and drive meaningful behaviour change across communities.
The project will educate children and teenagers about infection prevention and antimicrobial use and build a foundation of awareness that can sustain responsible behaviour into adulthood. This early engagement is crucial, as it is the under-18 generation which could face an adulthood without effective antibiotics.
Collaborative and community-led research in the Maya-Achí territory - Guatemala
Dr Nathan Einbinder
Faculty of Science and Engineering
Over the past three decades, the Association of Committees for Community Production (ACPC), has mobilised and trained hundreds of Indigenous Maya-Achí farmers to restore the local watershed by promoting agroforestry; enhance organic vegetable, coffee, fruit, and grain production by teaching new and ancestral techniques; and become more resilient to climate change and other challenges.
Faculty of Science and Engineering
Over the past three decades, the Association of Committees for Community Production (ACPC), has mobilised and trained hundreds of Indigenous Maya-Achí farmers to restore the local watershed by promoting agroforestry; enhance organic vegetable, coffee, fruit, and grain production by teaching new and ancestral techniques; and become more resilient to climate change and other challenges.
Recent programmes include innovations around locally made bio-fertilisers, construction of water catchment systems, and producing gas for cooking stoves through small-scale bio-digesters.
This award will provide the necessary financial support and technical assistance to help fulfil a requirement and stated goal, by ACPC leadership and members, to generate quantifiable evidence about their work and its impacts, as well as a long-time ambition to develop their own research questions and participate fully in data gathering processes and analysis.
The project will assist in co-creating a research design, as well as organise training sessions for technicians on how to conduct effective and ethical fieldwork and systematically analyse their work.
Safe Meds Ghana: Community Awareness on Substandard and Falsified Medicines
Dr Maysa Falah
Peninsula Medical School – Faculty of Health
This project aims to design, deliver and evaluate a feasible, community-focused pilot awareness campaign to strengthen public understanding of SF medicines in Ghana through co-created engagement activities.
The project team will organise and deliver a participatory pilot community workshop, working with local pharmacies, community venues and outreach organisations to support recruitment and accessibility.
Peninsula Medical School – Faculty of Health
This project aims to design, deliver and evaluate a feasible, community-focused pilot awareness campaign to strengthen public understanding of SF medicines in Ghana through co-created engagement activities.
The project team will organise and deliver a participatory pilot community workshop, working with local pharmacies, community venues and outreach organisations to support recruitment and accessibility.
Sessions will use interactive discussion, scenario-based learning and visual tools to maximise accessibility and knowledge retention. This supports inclusive participation and enables communities to relate content to everyday medicine purchasing behaviours.
Post-Plastic Ecologies: Indigenous Knowledge, Biomimetics, and Material Futures in Practice
Dr Ivan Tacey
Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business
This project develops an Indigenous-led, interdisciplinary methodology for exploring sustainable alternatives to plastics grounded in Indigenous traditional ecological knowledge (TEK), biomimetics, decolonial anthropology, environmental criminology, and participatory arts-based research.
In this feasibility project, we will conduct two community-led workshops, undertake field-based material exploration with Orang Asli knowledge holders and biomimetics experts, and hold two UK workshops where the team will produce early-stage material prototypes and an integrated ethical approach and methodology. These outputs will form the basis of a large grant application aimed at the AHRC.
Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business
This project develops an Indigenous-led, interdisciplinary methodology for exploring sustainable alternatives to plastics grounded in Indigenous traditional ecological knowledge (TEK), biomimetics, decolonial anthropology, environmental criminology, and participatory arts-based research.
In this feasibility project, we will conduct two community-led workshops, undertake field-based material exploration with Orang Asli knowledge holders and biomimetics experts, and hold two UK workshops where the team will produce early-stage material prototypes and an integrated ethical approach and methodology. These outputs will form the basis of a large grant application aimed at the AHRC.
2024 Award Winners
The OP Project
The mainstreaming of identified technology-enabled healthcare in people’s home is an Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) priority. To make the most of data from wearables, smart devices and environmental sensors at home, systems need to ensure several factors including data flow into a “orchestration platform” (OP) which brings together real-time data from application programming interfaces (APIs) with patient records.
This award will provide resource to populate an understanding of the initial priorities and tensions of developing an OP. To build trust with those who will be impacted by an innovation of this design. This work will also provide the necessary PPIE work that is required (pre-award) by NIHR and will inform an application to the Health and Social Care Delivery Research Programme.
Brain Computer Interfaces (BCI) Learning
This exciting technology allows individuals to control machines with their minds by translating brain signals into computer commands. Its application can improve various treatments from stroke rehabilitation to surgery augmentation.
This award seeks to work with the public to understand their conceptualisation of BCIs and how they instinctively try to control machines with their minds. This new engagement programme pilot is expected to use the feedback to inform a large-scale study to develop and implement a BCI Learning Protocol. It will also give the foundation to apply for substantial research grants.
Participatory Project with Wonder Zoo Arts
Dr Jamie Harper
School of Art, Design and Architecture
School of Art, Design and Architecture
This project aims to deliver innovation by developing new creative tools, in the form of walking and game play, for engaging participants in place-based research initiatives.
The award will fund Stonehouse residents to go on exploratory walks and note meaningful features of their environment. The participants of these walks will then work with the researcher to abstract their views of the landscape through map-making activities, that then provide the basis for creating board games. The work will conclude with a public sharing and exhibition to play the games that have been developed and hear the stories of the participants who made them.
Engagement Activities with Fishing Communities
Amir Bordbar
School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics
School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics
The project is aiming to actively engage with fishing communities across the country, providing them opportunities to contribute towards discussions and speak openly and honestly about their visions for their industry developing and adapting to new technologies such as changes to vessel fleets, regulations, and finances.
This funding will create better working relationships, by offering easily accessible meeting times and venues such as local community centres, pubs, cafes, and restaurants. The team will collect information and experiences without judgement and collate fishermen’s views along with ports and harbour staff in a manner that they will recognise as useful for future progress.
Something Fishy.......
This piece of work is proposing an engagement event at the Plymouth Fish Market to showcase all things FISH across the city. This event will be used to test The Plymouth Fishfinger* prototype with the diverse local audience.
*The Plymouth Fishfinger is an innovation being led by the FoodSEqual Plymouth research team, alongside local stakeholders. The prototype fishfinger will be co-designed and co-produced by school students and it will be both healthy and sustainable, ensuring local fish remains in the local community. The intention is to get this product into the school meal system locally.
Co-creating research outputs with community Collaborators
Hannah Gardiner
School of Health Professions
School of Health Professions
This project aims to engage community collaborators optimally in the dissemination of tangible research outputs with the objectives to co-create three outputs:
- One collaboratively written academic paper with one dissemination method such as a paper / blog, etc (to be decided).
- One output from participatory research, to be decided with participants (such as mixing writing with media / video / zine / comic, etc).
- Reflection on the collaboration process and collate the learnings on collaborative writing and dissemination into a case study which can be shared amongst the University of Plymouth academic community and beyond.
Forced Displacement and arts-based Interventions
Forced migrants are five times more likely to experience mental illness than people who have not experienced forced displacement. There is emerging evidence, that creative arts-based interventions help to reduce the symptoms of depression, anxiety, PTSD and other mental health illness.
This project will enable engagement activities to develop partnerships and convene research proposal workshops over two meetings with non-academic partners. The workshops will facilitate gaining a better understanding of the nature and creative arts-based work offered by local service providers.
Community Research Engagement in Aging and the Mind (CREAM)
This award will fund a CREAM Tea event within the local community to hear talks from local researchers and the opportunities to volunteer to help with designing or taking part in future research projects relating to the brain and aging.
This research is currently centred around the longer-term consequences of traumatic brain injury in older people. An important part of designing high-quality studies in this field is understanding what is important to these patients during their recovery and what life might have been like before their brain injury.
2023 Award Winners
Shipworm in the mango swamps of Panama
Researcher: Dr Reuben Shipway
Project outline:
Reuben, with partners and key stakeholders, sought to build on the successes of finding a new species of Shipworm in the mango swamps of Panama in July 2022.
Through this funding, Reuben built stronger relationships with Cristhian Puchicama – a member of the WNC and other members. Reuben and partners learnt more about the biology and ecology of Hihai, as well as being able to facilitate collaboration with colleagues at the Smithsonian and Harvard. Finally, Reuben captured and created further media content on Shipworm research with Bizarre Beasts.
Partners included: Wounaan National Congress (WNC), Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology (HMCZ), Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute affiliates (STRI) and Bizarre Beasts (network of YouTube channels).
Research, development, and recommendation of a community shared e-cargo bike system to increase user-ship
Researcher: Dr Minchul Sohn
Project outline:
Minchul, collaborating with partners from Bikespace and Zedify, has looked at research, development, and recommendation of a community shared e-cargo bike system to increase usership, particularly amongst small-medium businesses and retailers in Plymouth’s local commercial hubs.
The participatory workshops organised helped find problem framing techniques, undertook preliminary exploration of potential solutions, and helped create business models for a community shared e-cargo bike system in Plymouth.
Exploring the role that human rights education programmes played in shaping notions of empowerment amongst displaced women in Columbia
Researcher: Dr Claudia Blandon
Project outline:
Claudia has been exploring the role that human rights education programmes played in shaping notions of empowerment amongst displaced women in Columbia.
The award supported the delivery of face to face workshops in Cali, Columbia for culturally sensitive discussions on gender and empowerment issues with diverse audiences (such as young people, men and women, diverse gender identities, diverse cognitive and literacy levels).
Partners: working with Marleni Alegria – Union of University Workers and Employees of Colombia (SINTRAUNICOL).
Better access to education
Researcher: Ms Phyllis McNally
Project outline:
Phyllis worked with Community Horizons CIO and Women Merging Cultures – Art Collective, collected the stories of mothers in relation to the barriers experienced in accessing education and the challenges experienced as parents of forcibly displaced backgrounds (FDP) that have to learn an additional language, culture and educational systems, for themselves and their children.
This case study pilot explored community engagement through innovative focus groups, art sessions and coaching workshops, bringing together women of FDP, academics and voluntary sector practitioners.
2022 Award Winners
Researcher: Dr Arun Sood
Project outline:
Working with partners and stakeholders: Marenka Thompson-Odlum – Pitt Rivers Museum, Winston Phulgence – St Lucia Archaeological and Historical Society, Uta and Verena Lawaetz – Balenbouche Estate, Tabitha Cadbury – The Box, Yannick James – Freelance Musician/Violinist, Alastair Smith – Freelance Sound Engineer.
This project made sound recordings from significant areas of St Lucia over two weeks in June 2022. We layered new compositions of sound, spoken word and oral history over field recordings taken onsite, with the playing of stringed instruments of West African and South American heritage that were transported to the island and used by enslaved people in the eighteenth century.
We expanded international awareness of the Archaeological Society’s activities and increased awareness of the history of plantation slavery in St Lucia through these innovative and creative methods.
Researcher: Professor Ashwin Dhanda
Project outline:
The project applied findings from a review of the literature and discussions from stakeholders which included Plymouth Complex Lives Alliance, the Waterfront Primary Care Network, and the SW Liver Unit at UHP.
The project in partnership with Amanda Clements – Nurse Consultant from UHP, used innovative ways to identify and engage hard-to-reach people with liver disease to hear their views on how they could best have a voice in developing relevant research in the field of liver disease.
Researchers: Dr Katherine Gulliver and Mrs Rachel Knight Lozano
Faculty of Art, Humanities and Business – School of Law, Humanities and Social Sciences, and Faculty of Health – School of Health Professions (respectively)
Project outline:
Working with partners: Stuart Heron – Mayfield Special School, Rebecca Skinner – Active Devon, Claire Paddon – Plymouth Parent Carer Voice and external stakeholder groups.
Through the delivery of four interactive workshops, targeting stakeholder groups, this project engaged in collaborative analysis of child-led findings from a current interdisciplinary, research study titled: “Chest Health through the lens of a child with Neurodisability: A Mosaic approach to explore child-focused perceptions of exercise-based chest health interventions.”
Findings from this stakeholder engagement activity informed the next stage of a wider project, focused on co-design of inclusive, child and stakeholder-led educational resources that promotes chest health through physical activity in schools and the community.
Researchers: Dr Katherine Gulliver and Mrs Rachel Knight Lozano
Faculty of Art, Humanities and Business – School of Law, Humanities and Social Sciences, and Faculty of Health – School of Health Professions (respectively)
Project outline:
Working with partners: Stuart Heron – Mayfield Special School, Rebecca Skinner – Active Devon, Claire Paddon – Plymouth Parent Carer Voice and external stakeholder groups.
Through the delivery of four interactive workshops, targeting stakeholder groups, this project engaged in collaborative analysis of child-led findings from a current interdisciplinary, research study titled: “Chest Health through the lens of a child with Neurodisability: A Mosaic approach to explore child-focused perceptions of exercise-based chest health interventions.”
Findings from this stakeholder engagement activity informed the next stage of a wider project, focused on co-design of inclusive, child and stakeholder-led educational resources that promotes chest health through physical activity in schools and the community.
Researchers: Mx Bramble Gardiner and Dr Louise Hunt
Project outline:
Working with partners: Lisa Howard, the FoodSEqual Community Food Researcher Coordinator and Whitleigh community food researchers (Food Plymouth CIC).
A community-led participatory food themed ‘People’s Assembly’ event, in Whitleigh, that brought together stakeholders (community leaders, members, families, champions) with University of Plymouth researchers to explore, discover and debate some of the many topical issues around food and the food system as part of the FoodSEqual project.
This event also developed the public engagement skills of the early career researchers (ECR) leading the event, who will continue to expand the Community Food Researchers (CFR) model in Plymouth over the coming years and evaluate its impact.
Researchers: Dr Rachel Manning and Professor Robert Brown
Faculty of Art, Humanities and Business – School of Law, Humanities and Social Sciences/ School of Art, Design and Architecture (respectively)
Project outline:
This project worked with partners and stakeholders: Clive Shore – NHS Devon Clinical Commissioning Group, Dr Richard Ayers – Adelaide Street Surgery and University of Plymouth’s Medical School, Martin Ivatt – Plymouth City Council, Neil Emery – Clifton Emery Design, Wendy Smith – MBE, Robert Brown – Urban Dialogues, University of Plymouth colleagues, hierarchy, alumni, and students and the wider Stonehouse Community.
These people co-authored a vision of the future Plymouth city centre medical hub (i.e. Plymouth West End Health and Wellbeing Centre) with an enhanced sense of its perceived accessibility and of a community adaptable to change. The project provided an action-based research case study exploring issues of community well-being and resilience in the face of change and key themes within current discourse on community and health, innovatively broadening and deepening civic engagement.
Researcher: Professor Sarah Neill
Project outline:
Working with internal and external partners and stakeholders which included: Lynn Pashby, Mary Mancini and Andrew Turnbull, representing the PPI panel for the project: PenCRU and PenPEG.
Professor Chris Morris – PenARC and PenCRU, Dr Kristin Liabo – PenARC and PenPEG, Professor Lucy Bray – Edge Hill University and Heather Eardley – Freelance Senior Project Manager.
This project co-created the content for an online open access research module with, and for, patients and the public to help them understand the nature of research, research terminology/processes and how they can help as research team members and/or PPIE (Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement) advisors.
Project outline:
Through multidisciplinary co-creation with a remote, rural, coastal community, this project aimed to place spirituality at the centre of life, capturing insights, understanding and knowledge of spirituality (‘thin space’) and its benefits to individuals, heritage, community, culture, and landscape.
The Explore Award enabled the team to undertake an innovative oral and visualization story-telling co-creation multidisciplinary workshop in partnership with: Reverend Samantha Stayte – Lyn Valley Mission Community and Jayne Peacock – Executive Head of West Exmoor Federation.