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Some £4,000 of this will be to seed fund new activity and £2,000 will be to provide support and training to the new partnerships to help them thrive in the future.

The aim is to “help our local communities to thrive, and to improve teaching and research”.

The funding is from £50,000 recently awarded to the university’s Community University Partnership Programme (CUPP) by from the government’s UK Research and Innovation as part of its Strategic Support to Expedite Embedding Public Engagement with Research (SEE-PER) programme.

CUPP brings together local people, voluntary organisations and university staff and students to share the different types of knowledge that they hold for the benefit of all parties.

David Wolff

The new programme ‘Ignite’ is a 12 month community-university partnerships incubator programme and, for the first time, the university will combine in one development programme: seed funding a ‘community of practice’ and tailored partnership support.

Dave Wolff, CUPP’s Director, said: “Each proposed partnership will be considered by an Ignite Advisory Group comprising community and university members who will look for projects that connect with research and teaching at the university. Additionally, projects will need to have a community impact, and those that address social inclusion and sustainability will be prioritised.

“CUPP has a long history of encouraging and supporting successful community collaborations. A key outcome of the programme will be to share the learning from Ignite and producing a guide with partnership case studies, so other universities and communities can benefit from the learning – both in the UK and internationally.”