Positively Brilliant News to Focus on…

A few weeks ago, the Focus on the Positive team got some brilliant news, and spent the day celebrating. Sadly not all the team could be there. Focus on the Positive organisers Hilary Jackson and Lizzy Baddeley tell what happened.

 

Hilary: A few weeks ago I left London to have a lovely holiday in Barcelona. There was sunshine. There was tapas. There was good company and good music. What I had to experience only by text message was a pretty exciting piece of news from Lizzy, who was living it up at Universities Week at the Natural History Museum back in London…

 

Lizzy: Indeed Hilary, you missed an exciting Wednesday. Focus on the Positive was up for an ‘Engage’ award from the National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement (NCCPE).  They were giving out a few different awards, and we had been shortlisted with two other projects in the Collaborations category. The nicest part for us was that they classed our collaboration with out event audiences as the best bit! (We knew this already, but it’s always nice to hear if from someone else).

The competition in our category was from a really great project from Bristol University ‘Sustainable management of intestinal parasites of livestock in Botswana’ and another UCL Public Engagement Unit project, Creating Connections, where UCL staff and postgraduate students with representatives from community organisations, charities, residents’ groups, social enterprises and statutory organisations, with the aim of finding ways to work together. It was rather nerve wracking to be up against such good competition – especially as the other UCL project is run by Laura Cream – who sits on the desk next to me!

So we arrived at the Natural History Museum for the awards ceremony, with quite a few members of UCL staff, and were treated to a rather lovely ceremony. Just like the Oscars there was a celebrity host (Professor Alice Roberts) and each project had had a short film made about it. We waited with bated breath as the Collaborations category was introduced, and then cheered very loudly when Focus on the Positive was announced the winner!

I had to go up on stage as Hilary was too busy sipping red wine and sunbathing – but I got a lovely photo with Alice! And a very pretty award.

After the event, we all got to troop through to what I think was the geology gallery for some fizzy wine and scones. It really was like the Oscars!

We are, of course, sad that the other UCL project did not win – but I’ve put the award between my desk and that of my Creating Connections neighbour, so we can both bask in NCCPE glory.

 

Hilary: So, while I love a holiday as much as the next public engagement coordinator, I wish I’d been in London that Wednesday to celebrate with the team! Luckily, I get to help spend our £1000 prize money, which will be used to support funded Focus on the Positive projects to continue their good work.

 

Lizzy: And lets not forget: none of this would have happened without the our funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). We’ve got another few events before this funding runs out – so come along to the next one at the Grant Museum of Zoology on October16th!

You can read more about the award on UCL News and on the NCCPE website.