Meet Audrey Tan, Head of Public Engagement. In this profile Audrey tells us about Centre for Public Engagement's (CPE) three grant schemes, how their work ties in directly to the two core arms of Strategy 2030 and about receiving an Advance Higher Education (Advance HE) Associate Fellowship.
I joined Queen Mary in April 2023 having previously worked at University College London for their policy engagement and public engagement teams, respectively. My first role with Queen Mary was managing policy engagement work within the Mile End Institute and in August I joined the Centre for Public Engagement (CPE) as the Head of Public Engagement. A research methodologist by training, I previously worked for the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), Cochrane, and the World Health Organisation (WHO), conducting systematic reviews of clinical evidence to inform policy decision-making. I moved to the UK from Canada eight years ago and I still haven’t gotten used to the mass panic that descends when there’s even the slightest sprinkling of snow here.
Given that I’ve only recently started in my role with the CPE, a lot of my time is currently spent meeting with colleagues across the University who are involved with public engagement. I’ve really enjoyed getting the opportunity to learn more about the brilliant engagement work that’s taking place across the University and form connections with the colleagues who make this happen. If anyone reading this wants to chat any and all things community/public engagement, please do reach out! Around meetings, I’m doing a lot of strategic work to find ways for the CPE to better integrate across the university and raise the profile of the brilliant public engagement work that takes place at Queen Mary.
The CPE has three grant schemes - Small Grants, Large Grants, and Participatory Research Grants – that fund public engagement activity across the University. Many of the projects that the CPE has funded have gone to achieve incredible impact with local and global communities and partners. I’ve been working with Dr Aoife Sadlier, our Participatory Research Officer, to launch the Large Grants and Participatory Research Grant Schemes. Applications will be open 23 September to 4 November 2024. The Small Grants run on a monthly basis until May 2025 with the first deadline being 15 November and applications are now open.
My work as the Head of Public Engagement ties in directly to the two core arms of Strategy 2030 - Education and the Student Experience (specifically, providing students with opportunities to engage with our local communities and to build skills to help them address societal challenges) and Research and Innovation (specifically, embedding a culture of engagement and supporting researchers to increase external research income). The work I’m doing now to reconfigure and realign the CPE is with an eye to ensure that our core programming, such as the Festival of Communities, training, internal funding schemes and advice surgeries, continues to facilitate these aims while also increasing our capacity for exploring innovative and creative new activities and programmes.
I love Dept W’s rooftop. They’ve set out some tables and it’s a great place to have lunch on a sunny day (not that we get many of those) with fantastic views over the city.
I share a horse in north London so once a week I get to escape into the semi-countryside and spend some time with the horses, cows and cats that call the stable home. I’m also a volunteer befriender with Age UK and since 2018 have been visiting a housebound older lady. At 86 she’s officially my oldest London friend, in more ways than one! You can also regularly find me attending gallery and museum exhibitions and ballets and musicals, and waging war against the slugs in my garden.
This past spring I received my Advance Higher Education (Advance HE) Associate Fellowship. Even though I’m a professional services staff member, my current and past roles have involved a lot of teaching, so I wanted to gain some recognition around this area of my work. If you regularly teach as part of your role, I’d really encourage you to consider applying for an Advance HE fellowship as it’s a highly respected accreditation and recognised internationally. Queen Mary’s Teaching Recognition Programme offers internal support structures for people wanting to apply for fellowships and the team is outstanding.