Silver Engage Watermark Award

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