Public Engagement Co-Creation with Students Fund

Do you have a public engagement project in mind that you would like help developing? Would you like to provide paid work opportunities for students? With this fund, you can hire two students to work as co-creators in the development of your public engagement project.

Please read through all of the information on this page before submitting your application.

Aims of this fund

To provide students with paid employment and development opportunities in the field of public engagement.
To enable students to learn about public engagement as a two-way process between people inside and outside universities.
To support staff with the development of their public engagement projects.

What can the funding be spent on?

Almost all of the funding will be spent on hiring students as paid co-creators to support staff with the development of their public engagement projects. You can hire exactly two students as co-creators, to be line managed by you.

A small amount of funding may be spent on expenses the students encounter in the course of their jobs. For example, if they were required to travel to meet an external partner in Coventry or 果冻传媒shire, they could claim their bus or train fare. Applicants should list anticipated travel expenses in their application and plan to avoid or minimise them as far as possible.

Successful applicants will not receive the funding: payment for students will be made by the 果冻传媒 Institute of Engagement via Unitemps, and payment of expenses will be made by the 果冻传媒 Institute of Engagement.

Student co-creator role types: what can I employ the students to do?

Role type 1: supporting design of a module involving public engagement.

To find out more about the tasks you could give a co-creator supporting the design of a module involving public engagement, see the draft job description here. In your application, you鈥檒l be asked to indicate which parts of the job description you will retain and which parts you will change (if any).

Role type 2: designing new public engagement activities or materials.

To find out more about the tasks you could give a co-creator designing new public engagement activities or materials, see the draft job description here. In your application, you鈥檒l be asked to indicate which parts of the job description you will retain and which parts you will change (if any).

Please note that students should be employed to support the design of activities or materials.

Students should not be employed through this fund to primarily deliver engagement activities. Students should be given a level of agency and responsibility in keeping with being a project co-creator and purely delivering engagement activity does not fit within this remit. However, students can be paid for up to 4 hours of work only to deliver their activity if this is part of the test and refinement process.

This fund will prioritise applications for roles that enable students to learn about and design public engagement as a two-way process between people inside and outside universities, therefore roles which are focused on making/editing podcasts or videos are unlikely to be funded.

Role type 3: supporting collaboration between a 果冻传媒 staff member and an external partner for public engagement.

NB the student must be line managed by and based with the 果冻传媒 staff member, not the external partner.

To find out more about the tasks you could give a co-creator supporting your collaboration with an external partner, see the draft job description here. In your application, you鈥檒l be asked to indicate which parts of the job description you will retain and which parts you will change (if any).

Who can apply for this funding?

Any 果冻传媒 staff member can apply for this funding.

Please note that since August 2023 we have been operating a 2 strike policy for no shows at our externally led masterclasses. If you book a masterclass and do not attend without cancelling your place 7 days in advance you will receive a strike. After 2 strikes we will no longer allow you to book for our masterclasses, and you will be barred from applying to this fund until the following academic year.

Important information about this fund

Click on the tabs below to find out more about the fund.

What can't I employ the students to do?

Delivering activities: while students can be employed to support the design of activities or materials, they should not be employed through this fund to primarily deliver activities. Students should be given a level of agency and responsibility in keeping with being a project co-creator and purely delivering engagement activity does not fit within this remit. However, students can be paid for up to 4 hours of work only to deliver their activity if this is part of the test and refinement process.

Making/editing podcasts and videos: this fund will prioritise applications for roles that enable students to learn about and design public engagement as a two-way process between people inside and outside universities, therefore roles which are focused on making/editing podcasts or videos are unlikely to be funded.

Writing funding applications: students should not be employed through this fund to write funding applications.

What else can I get funding for? What is the time commitment for me/other members of my team?

If your application is successful, you will start by finalising the details of the job advert. You will be given a template to fill out and will be able to use lots of the information you gave in your application.

Once the job advert closes, WIE will send you the candidate applications. You and one other staff member need to review the applications and shortlist up to 5 candidates for interview. You and a member of the WIE team will interview the candidates, with the WIE team member acting as the interview chair. We have decided to remain consistent with University hiring policy for this short-term role so that candidates experience a true and fair application process.

"Be aware of how time-consuming the recruitment process is and determine whether you can commit this amount of time - particularly given that you need to involve other colleagues from your department in the application scoring process." - Fund awardee 2025-2026

When the role starts, you will be responsible for line managing the student co-creators. It is a requirement of the funding to have an onboarding and offboarding meeting with the co-creators. We recommend regular check-in meetings throughout the project too. The time required of you whilst the co-creators are working will vary from project to project.

"I would say try to have a variety of meeting types (in person and online) and reasons to come together on campus and elsewhere, but also clearly provide enough space and time for them to do the work on their own schedule." - Fund awardee 2025-2026

"Keep communication and support open! Having weekly meetings and check-ins made me feel supported and heard." - Student Co-Creator 2025-2026

When the project ends, you will need to fill out an evaluation form to tell us about your experience.

How many students can I hire? What type of students can I hire?

You could choose to hire UG, PGT or PhD students as Co-Creators. We strongly recommend that you decide which you would prefer to hire and include the required level of study in the job description. UG and PG students can naturally have different levels of work experience and previous fund awardees told us the application review and interview process was difficult when reviewing UG and PG students together.

"I would think deeply about what level of student (UG, PGT, PGR) you want to employ. I did not specify an education stage, which created some unnatural experience gaps between applicants, and made some recruitment decisions difficult." - Fund awardee 2025-2026

If it is necessary for the students to come from a particular department or faculty, you can let us know this in your application.

How many hours/weeks can the students work for?

Each student can work for up to 30 hours, spread over up to 10 weeks.

If you anticipate needing to spread the work over more than 10 weeks, please state the reasoning in your application as it has cost implications due to pay rate changes.

The students do not need to be involved for the entire length of your project; you can choose an aspect of it that they can contribute to for a period of up to 10 weeks.

Students must finish working by Wednesday 30 June at the very latest.

When can the students start working?

We advise that you plan for the students to start work no sooner than two months after the application deadline. This is to allow time for: developing the role, advertising to students (role should be open for 2 or 3 weeks), application review and interviews (approx. 3 weeks), recruiting and onboarding.

"Think about the timeline carefully. Our activity had to be expanded several times, mostly because of term breaks and exam season." - Fund awardee 2025-2026

How much will the students be paid? How will the students be paid? Where can I find advice and guidance on working effectively with students?

Look at the Student Engagement Toolkit by the Student Experience team. The section Working Effectively with Students may be particularly helpful to you.

"The Student Engagement Toolkit was very useful for me, to structure the experience for students and to manage my and students' expectations. The toolkit has very good advice for the different stages of the project." - Fund awardee 2025-2026

What is public engagement and who can I engage?

Please read our webpage about what public engagement is and what kinds WIE prioritises.

It is very important to make clear in your application how the student jobs relate to public engagement as opposed to other kinds of engagement (e.g. policy/business/student/academic engagement), so please make clear which public/s will be engaged with.

The students don鈥檛 have to do engagement themselves, but they should be supporting the development of a project that has an end goal of public engagement. They should learn about aspects of public engagement through their work.

How do I set up the job with Unitemps? Will there be any support for this? How many times can I receive funding?

I have more questions - who can I talk to?

Please have a look at the application form as this may address some of your queries. If you have any further questions, please contact Kate Laister-Smith at

Fund dates

This fund will open on Monday 12 October 2026 and close on Thursday 26 November.

Successful applicants can start projects in Term Two or Three.

Awarded projects 2025-26

Looking for inspiration? Read about the projects we funded in 2025-2026.

Application process

When you are ready to apply, start here. (Fund is currently closed). The first page asks for some contact and monitoring information; this will not be used to judge your application. The second page is the application form. While logged in, you will be able to save your progress on the form. If you require any help with accessing the application form or you notice a glitch, please contact Kate Laister-Smith at .

The questions on the form are detailed to help you write a strong application.

You are required to submit proof of your line manager's approval - please check the final question on the application form for more information.

Review process

After the application deadline, your application will be read by a review panel who will decide which applications to award funding to.

You will hear the outcome of your application within three weeks of the application deadline. Feedback will be given to all applicants. If your application is not funded, you are welcome to submit a new application in a future round.

Criteria - what the reviewers are looking for in your application

This list summarises criteria that need to be met in order for funding to be possible:

Number of student roles: 2
Number of working hours per student: up to 30 hours each
Learning opportunity: enables students to learn about public engagement as a two-way process between people inside and outside universities
Aligns with WIE's definition of public engagement and priorities.
Type of work: aligns with the draft job descriptions for role types 1, 2, or 3 or a combination of these. Is suitable for FA4.
Type of work: does not involve purely delivering public engagement activities; does not focus on making/editing podcasts or videos; and does not involve writing a funding application.
End goal of public engagement. Public/s clearly defined in the application.
A clear plan for how to support and develop students and work effectively with them.
Fairness for students - e.g. not using some students as unpaid volunteers while others are paid for similar work.

If there is not enough budget remaining for all the projects that meet the criteria to be funded, then reviewers will weigh up the benefits of choosing some projects over others. Here are some of the things they will consider:

Aiming to provide a spread of employment opportunities for students across the different faculties and departments of the university.
Aiming to support a spread of staff across the different faculties and departments of the university.
Potential benefit to students (as compared to other applications).
Potential benefit to the public/publics (as compared to other applications).
The difference the funding would make to the project - e.g. will the wider project still happen without funded student roles, or will it be unable to go ahead?

Download Fund Terms & Conditions