Civic and Public Engagement: the next chapter for the CPE

14 September 2026

As we look ahead to 2027, Queen Mary marks two milestones on our journey as an engaged university. Next year is the fifteenth anniversary of the Centre for Public Engagement and the fifth anniversary of Queen Mary's first Civic University Agreement. Both reflect a long tradition of engaging public audiences with our research and university life, demonstrating our commitment to the communities and places we are part of, in East London and beyond. 

The Centre for Public Engagement was first established in 2012 to help support Queen Mary staff and students embed public engagement into their work. Today we remain committed to supporting our staff, students, and the local community throughout their engagement journey. 

As we reflect on these milestones and consider how Queen Mary can maintain its sector-leading excellence as an engaged university, we have brought our civic and public engagement activities together within a combined team, with a new and updated offer to support colleagues and partners in delivering real-world impact. To reflect this, the familiar CPE acronym will now stand for 'Civic and Public Engagement'.  

Building on the success of our 2021 ‘Platinum Engage Watermark’ awarded by the National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement (NCCPE), we aim to enhance our support for public engagement across the University by aligning to key Governmental and regional strategies, while focusing our work with communities locally, nationally and internationally around key themes. This will help us to engage with new organisations whilst deepening the connections and partnerships we have already established. Bringing our civic and public engagement work together into one team gives colleagues a clearer route to access support, whether you are starting a research project with community partners, building a module embedding real-world practice, or working with a local authority or organisation across East London. 

The CPE will continue to support colleagues across research, partnerships and education. This includes helping to deliver the ambitions of Curriculum 2030 through the development of sustainable place-making, strategic partnerships and engaged practice. Our role is to enable and strengthen your work. We do this by providing funding to establish, develop or grow engaged projects, offering advice, training and practical support, facilitating connections with communities and partners, and helping you plan, evidence and demonstrate the difference your engagement makes. Over the coming weeks and months, we will share more about what this means and how you can work with us. 

Find out more about some of the support on offer: 

• Engagement Fund
• Advice Surgeries 
• Training 
• Resources 
• Convening internal networks 
• Support with embedding and costing public engagement into research grant and funding applications [more information coming soon] 

Sign up to our newsletter to receive regular news and updates from the team. 

Contact the team at engagement@qmul.ac.uk.