This award recognises and celebrates the impact of research and practice in the education community and how both have demonstrably engaged the public.

The award is presented annually and is normally awarded to a team of researchers.

Nominations are sought from:

• Teams whose educational research work has shown demonstrable public engagement and/or impact with the last 5 years
• Teams whose activities have boosted public engagement with educational research and/or its impact, or whose efforts have increased recognition and support for education research in public 

For the purposes of this Award, ‘public engagement’ is broadly defined as activities that bring research and/or researchers and the public (or specific groups within the public) together. It is more than just disseminating research – effective public engagement is about two-way communication, with the researchers listening to and learning from participants or other stakeholders at different stages in the research process. UKRI provide a helpful definition of public engagement
 
‘Impact’ is broadly defined as an effect on, change or benefit to the economy, society, culture, public policy or services, health, the environment or quality of life, beyond academia.  It includes, but is not limited to, an effect on, change or benefit to:

• the activity, attitude, awareness, behaviour, capacity, opportunity, performance, policy,

• practice, process or understanding; of an audience, beneficiary, community, constituency, organisation or individuals; in any Geographic location whether locally, regionally, nationally or internationally.

Nominations are scored by a BERA selection panel and are framed by the following criteria:

Judging Criteria

• Quality of the process of work undertaken to facilitate public engagement/realise impact 
• Effectiveness of the approach adopted in engaging the public/realising impact 
• Significance and contribution of the work (e.g. evidence of impact on the public, evidence of knowledge exchange)
• Methodological rigour and robustness of the research underpinning the impact 

Prize Details 

• Featured article in BERA’s magazine Research Intelligence
• The award winners will be promoted on BERA’s website, social media channels and in our newsletters to the wider research community.
• The award winners may be asked to play a BERA ambassadorial role. This may include speaking about their research at BERA Conference and/or other events, submitting a BERA blog, involvement on twitter, or being asked to record audio or video for BERA’s website.

To apply you must download the application form below and then upload it via the application page. For any queries, please contact membership@bera.ac.uk