About
The Engage Watermark is an award granted by the National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement (NCCPE) to higher education institutions to recognise their strategic support for public engagement and their commitment to improve the support offered. Just as a watermark runs through the fabric of a document, an Engage Watermark indicates that engagement runs through the fabric of an institution.
Institutions applying for the Engage Watermark will receive a synthesis of key data relating to their institution, enabling them to recognise core strengths as well as highlight areas for development. This intelligence gathering provides a rich source of data to strengthen the institution’s support for impactful public engagement.
Completing the Watermark process will allow institutions to:
- Assess their support for high quality public engagement with research against the NCCPE’s EDGE tool
- Assess understanding and awareness of public engagement across their institution
- Assess their institution’s strategic intent and how effectively it is focussed on enhancing the quality of its support
- Benchmark their activity against other institutions and monitor progress
Benefits to institutions
- Undertaking a focussed ‘stock take’ of existing evidence of the impact of their support for engagement
- Complementing the above with targeted additional intelligence gathering to build a robust picture
- Having that evidence synthesised and reviewed by an external organisation and benchmarked against other HEIs
- Receiving a set of recommendations and prompts to inform a refreshed action plan, with clear outcomes/success measures
- A final assessment of that action plan and the underpinning evidence base
- The opportunity to demonstrate to staff, students, partners and funders the institution’s commitment to public engagement
- Compelling evidence to submit to underpin funding applications, REF submissions, and other quality assurance processes