Awards

Trinity Civic Engagement Awards

The Provost Linda Doyle presented four Civic Engagement Awards to staff at a ceremony on Friday, 6th December 2024. The Awards, sponsored by the Civic Engagement for Societal Impact unit, are for proposed civic engagement projects to take place in 2025. Projects from the School of Medicine, School of Natural Sciences, School of Nursing and Midwifery and Security in Estates and Facilities were all honoured at the Awards.

Speaking at the event, the Provost acknowledged the tireless work of staff across the university, both academic and professional, who continue to work with different communities over many years. The Provost also reiterated Trinity’s commitment to working in collaboration to tackle societal challenges. She positioned Civic Engagement as a way of playing to our many strengths in order to be a partner for change.

Prof Jo-Hanna Ivers, Associate Dean of Civic Engagement for Societal Impact, reflected on the progress achieved so far in the Civic Engagement for Societal Impact Action Plan, which is now completing its first year. Prof Ivers also celebrated the partnerships between her unit and Dublin City Council, the NGO sector, European Researchers Night, Creative Brain Week, TAP, Trinity Global, the Trinity-based Research Centres’ Education and Public Engagement Teams and Impact Officers.

Partners agencies from the Pearse Street area were also well represented and Mary Colclough, Community & Enterprise Engagement Manager, gave an update on the work of Unit 18 in Trinity East and its work in being a good neighbour while also programming exciting activities in the space across the year.

The awards presented were as follows:

• The Engaged Teaching and Learning category went to Prof Eimear McGlinchey in Intellectual Disability in the School of Nursing and Midwifery, to co-develop resources that promote the increased inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities in teaching and assessment in the school.
• The award in the Civically Engaged Research category went to Dr Erica Krueger, Research Fellow in Geography, to install two CoastSnap monitoring stations in the Dublin Bay Biosphere Reserve to track coastal changes.
• The Civic Activity Award went to Beth Corcoran, a programme manager in Paediatrics within the School of Medicine. The project will develop a health awareness programme for teenagers with Down Syndrome.
• The inaugural Civic Starter Award was presented at the event. This award went to Zachary Chambers, Security Operations Manager in Estates and Facilities for a project that will help security staff to administer mental health first aid to students experiencing a mental health crisis outside of daytime hours.

More about the award

The award is structured to celebrate prospective projects rather than completed ones. While track record in civic engagement is evaluated by judges, it is one of a number of criteria considered. There is also one Civic Starter award for a staff member with no prior experience of civic engagement.

The maximum funding per award will be €2,000 and the CESI unit intends to provide four awards each year. Appropriate costs that the award may cover include refreshments and catering, design and print, creating accessible information, venue hire, covering vouched expenses for CESI stakeholders’ travel and accommodation, equipment hire, facilitator hire, interpreter hire, software or equipment costs.

All costs must either be for the project itself or incurred in activities that were required in advance of the project’s main activity, such as advertising or convening planning meetings. Successful proposals will need to spend the Award in line with Trinity policies and procedures, including procurement rules.

All current Trinity staff members, full-time or part-time, are eligible to apply for this award.

How to Apply

Applications for the Trinity Civic Engagement Awards opens in the autumn of each year and the winning projects will be announced at the annual end-of-year Civic Engagement celebration, Connecting for Impact.

Read more about the 2022 Civic Engagement Award winners.