Our purpose is to advance knowledge and wisdom through our research and innovation, unlocking new understanding. We inspire, empower and enrich the lives of our staff and students. We create regional, national and global impact that addresses societal challenges by working in partnership with organisations across the private, public and voluntary sectors.

Our actions

Strengthen

Build on existing excellent practice across the university, providing opportunities to share experiences and opportunities, grow networks and deepen relationships with internal and external partners and collaborators.

Acknowledge

Respect and reward the specialist skills, attributes, time and diversity of backgrounds and experiences that contribute to excellence in public engagement with research and seek to be recognised externally as leaders in public engagement.

Support

Provide specialist training opportunities to develop skills in engaged research, research and innovation communication, and citizen inquiry. We will develop communities of practice, provide internal resources and funding and support for leveraging external investment.

Embed

Provide opportunities for staff and students to engage in public engagement, building capacity for this activity across the institution, incorporating engaged research and innovation principles throughout the curriculum and doctoral college training.

Our commitment

We subscribe to the principles and commitments of the Manifesto for Public Engagement (NCCPE). Public engagement is not tokenistic but a core outcome of our institutional strategy to create better futures together.

A volunteer helping a child with an activity laid out on a table at a public event
Life through a lens activities at the British Science Festival

We encourage the consideration of when and how publics can be involved with our research throughout the lifecycle – from idea to impact.

Although not all research might lend itself to public engagement activities, we ensure that researchers and innovators have access to a variety of ways to engage that best suit their research activities and themselves.

Public engagement goes beyond dissemination to encompass meaningful dialogues with publics, valuing the benefits that a diversity of perspectives can bring to research and innovation design, delivery and impact realisation.

Recent activity

How can we produce everyday items without oil?

We are transforming biomass into fuel and many everyday items with the help of special new catalysts – from woodchip to liquid fuel, corn husk to shampoo, algae to trainers and even ice cream to bio-plastic fabrics.

SlowCat
A visitor attempts one of the activities - and laughs as the mind-body illusion foxes him

How well do we know our own bodies?

We want to help people to understand that our body might not always feel the same way that it looks. We use mind-bending body illusions to give an insight to how the brain creates and maintains a mental image of the body.
Two students in purple tee-shirts wearing face coverings

COVID - a sector-leading approach to engagement

Loughborough became a driving force behind the national approaches and policies that enabled higher education institutions to effectively operate during the pandemic

Anne Sexton sitting on a sofa holding a cigarette. Taken in 1974 by Arthur Furst

Poets in Vogue

We curated a free exhibition for the National Poetry Library that uncover the relationship between the language of poets and the clothes they wear. Exhibits include an iconic tartan skirt owned and worn by Sylvia Plath.

Image credit: 'Anne Sexton', Arthur Furst (1974)

Poets in Vogue
Man picking litter on the beach

50 years of beach litter

Loughborough University researchers are assessing how coastal litter from the ocean has changed over the past half-century in a unique project that brings together local heritage, drones, and mobile phone apps.

50 years of litter on Skye