Central support
There are teams that work across the University that can support your engagement activities.
Central Support Accordion accordion
The rewards team can provide information and support for Academic Promotion including the Engagement pathway. Email: promotions@lancaster.ac.uk
Consultancy – LU Consultancy Service can provide practical support on pricing, negotiation, contracting and invoicing. Email: consultancy@lancaster.ac.uk
Contract research is commissioned and paid for by an external organisation. Research can be commissioned that is directly related to organisational challenges or problems, benefiting from Lancaster’s state-of-the-art facilities and research power. Research contracts are set up with confidentiality and intellectual property provisions as appropriate to the project. Email: Mark Bowen, Business Gateway Manager m.bowen1@lancaster.ac.uk for more information.
Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs)- the KTP team can support all stages of the application process and throughout the term of the live project. Email:Caroline Gilbert, KTP Manager c.gilbert2@lancaster.ac.uk
The IP Support and Commercialisation team can support staff to identify, protect and commercially exploit Intellectual Property (IP) arising from research.
Email: ipr@lancaster.ac.uk
The EDI team can be contacted to advise on planning your engagement activities to fully embed Equality, Diversity and Inclusion considerations. Email: edi@lancaster.ac.uk
The Evaluation and Impact team, within External Relations can provide support on topics such as survey design and focus groups. Request to join the Evaluation and Impact Training Teams site for details of upcoming training opportunities. The team can also be contacted via email: evaluationandimpact@lancaster.ac.uk.
Support for engagement events is detailed in the Organising an engagement event section.
The University's Central Events Team can be contacted for any queries on event planning.
Email: events@lancaster.ac.uk.
Employment Recruitment Service (ERS) - This is the University’s recruitment agency for short-term work. Contact them if you need to hire support for your engagement activity.
Email: recruit@lancaster.ac.uk
The university has a professional creative facilitator based on campus for three days each week. Dee Hennessy works with academics and professional services staff using the iterative stages of creative facilitation to explore group facilitation approaches and to support the bespoke design and delivery of sessions, workshops, conferences and events. Email: d.hennessy@lancaster.ac.uk
For advice on engaging with Parliament, Government as well as regional and local policy engagement.
Janine Bickerstaff is the Research Policy Impact Manager and is your first point of call. Janine can provide guidance and signpost you to support available such as through the Industry and Parliament Trust (IPT) and the Open Innovation Partnership (OIP). You can also sign up to a weekly Policy Round Up newsletter.
For more information visit the working with policymakers section or email: policy@lancaster.ac.uk
The press team can offer expert advice on how to publicise your research across different media outlets, including press, broadcast and blogging.
They appreciate a conversation with you at the earliest stage of media engagement so they can advise on your media campaign to maximise its impact and mitigate any risks.
There is central support and dedicated support available within each faculty. For more information and contact details visit the Working with LU Press Office webpages or email:pressoffice@lancaster.ac.uk.
Sarah Carter, Media Engagement Manager leads on the University’s relationship with the Conversation. Contact Sarah to start building up your profile on The Conversation. Email: s.carter4@lancaster.ac.uk
Jess Shaw is the Public Engagement Manager and can provide advice and guidance for public engagement. Jess runs the Public and Community Engagement Network. Email: j.shaw10@lancaster.ac.uk
If you are involved in school engagement the widening participation team work with schools around the country and can share their expertise to help. Email:outreach@lancaster.ac.uk
For more information visit the working with the public and communities section
Jess Shaw is the Public Engagement Manager and can direct any PPI queries to the most appropriate person at the University. Email: j.shaw10@lancaster.ac.uk
The Research Impact Managers can be contacted for advice and practical support on all aspects of research impact, including planning and gathering evidence for impact.
FASS: Email: Gill Harrison g.harrison@lancaster.ac.uk
FHM & LUMS: Email: Matt Pawelski m.pawelski@lancaster.ac.uk
FST: Email: Anna Vitores a.vitores@lancaster.ac.uk Pamela Forster p.forster@lancaster.ac.uk‘
The Social Media team can provide guidance on the University, faculty and departmental social media channels. They have developed a social media playbook, with good ideas and useful advice on using social media on behalf of Lancaster University.
You are encouraged to seek advice from the Social Media team before undertaking social media engagement. This allows you to explore the risks; particularly important if your communication has the likelihood of being contentious. Email: social.media@lancaster.ac.uk
The Stakeholder Relations Team can provide advice on how to identify and map key stakeholders, help shape next steps in engaging with these contacts, and build engagement activities that will develop and enhance meaningful relationships with key figures or organisations. Email: stakeholderrelations@lancaster.ac.uk
If you are supporting a potential spin-out or staff start-up, or working with an existing business to innovate their product or service offer in some way, then you might want to draw on support to define their potential business model and business case.
Work in Progress has a range of handy tools and approaches to support your work here, and can provide 1-2-1 support directly with you and/or the client to ensure a robust validation process that will de-risk the venture. Those involved can also join the Work in Progress innovator community where they can draw on a wealth of peer insights and experiences.
Please visit the start-up support page for more information and support.
Faculty and departmental support
Alongside the central support there is support for you at faculty and departmental level from both academic and professional services staff.
Tab Content: Associate Deans for Engagement
Associate Deans for Engagement influence, develop and implement the University’s strategic plan in respect of engagement, ensuring this is reflected in the faculty and departmental engagement strategies. They also contribute more widely to leadership through representation at faculty and institutional committees.
They have an important role in building up valuable long-term strategic relationships and represent the faculty with initiatives that have an engagement component.
Faculty of Social Sciences (FASS) – Associate Dean for Engagement – Professor Julia Gillen
Faculty Science and Technology (FST) -Associate Dean for Engagement and Internationalisation – currently vacant
Faculty of Health and Medicine (FHM) - Associate Dean for Engagement – Dr Lisa Ashmore
Management School (LUMS) - Associate Dean, Engagement - currently vacant
Tab Content: Departmental Engagement Leads
Departmental Engagement Leads* act as engagement champions for your department.
They are your first point of contact for:
- Engagement support and advice
- Overview of engagement activity across your department
- Making sure engagement is woven into your research, teaching and student experience
Look up your Departmental Engagement Lead (only LU staff have access) or email: connect@lancaster.ac.uk
*This role may have a number of titles including Director of Engagement, Head of Engagement and Engagement Leads.
Tab Content: Partnership Development Teams
Partnership and Business Development Team - staff in these teams can have different job titles depending on the focus of their role. Typically, they are called Partnership Development Managers or Business Development Managers. They support knowledge exchange activities including contract research, consultancy, commercialisation of research to sustain impact, Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs), co-location, executive education, and student projects. These staff help establish new relationships or develop existing external partnerships with people, organisations or communities to support the university's strategic priorities including:
- Working with external partners to understand their challenges and find solutions, particularly through knowledge exchange with academic colleagues.
- Working with academic/research colleagues to recognise their expertise and value and to develop and deliver KE opportunities with external partners.
The teams can be contacted by email:
FASS- Email: fassengagement@lancaster.ac.uk
FST- Email:scitech.partnerships@lancaster.ac.uk
FHM- Email : hic@lancaster.ac.uk
LUMS- Email: lumsforbusiness@lancaster.uk
Networks and mailing list
There are a number of mailing lists and networks to help you to engage and connect with others.
Mailing Lists
Connect newsletter
Information on engagement events and activities around the University. For members of the public and also useful for LU staff/alumni. Contact: publicevents@lancaster.ac.uk. to subscribe or request your engagement event/activity is added.
Policy newsletter
Contact: policy@lancaster.ac.uk to subscribe.
Research connect
A research funding database for the research community. It has details of funding opportunities/streams, some focused on engagement activities. Go to the Research Connect webpage to subscribe.
Library newsletter
The library has a diverse programme of activities, events, exhibitions and displays. Subscribe to their newsletter to be kept informed.
Networks - central
Engagement
For all staff interested in engagement activities, training and news.
Request to join the Engagement MS Teams site.
Community of practice KE
For engagement/KE professional services staff. A forum to promote events, development opportunities and to share good practice.
Request to join the CoP KE MS Teams site.
Public and community engagement (PCE) network
For all staff interested in PCE - to share experiences, good practice and opportunities. They have PCE Network events and a MS Teams site.
Request to join the Public and Community Engagement MS Teams site.
Research staff association
Supports and empowers research staff to develop their careers.
They have termly meetings and a MS Teams site.
Request to join the Research Staff Association MS Teams site
Lancaster District Insight Hub
Bringing together people from Lancaster City Council (LCC), LU and beyond to make a positive difference through sharing insights and collaboration.
Contact the Partnerships Coordinator at LCC, Kirsty Chekansky. Email: kchekansky@lancaster.gov.uk
Networks and forums - faculty
The below are organised within faculties, but in most cases are open to all staff.
FASS CaKE (Curious about Knowledge Exchange)
Informal events exploring knowledge exchanges topics and for networking. Email: fassengagement@lancaster.ac.uk
FST Engagement Team and Forum
Bringing together FST colleagues with an interest in engaged research and sharing their work more widely. Request to join the Grp-FST-Engagement-Group
Health@Lancaster collaboration café
Weekly meetings are held during term times in Health Innovation One. Details are on the Health Innovation Campus events webpage.
Health connections and information sharing group
For anyone interested in health research, partnerships and engagement. Email: l.kornas@lancaster.ac.uk to be added to the network.
