Bronze Engage Watermark presented for outstanding commitment to public engagement

Diamond Light Source, the UK’s national synchrotron has been awarded a Bronze Engage Watermark by the National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement (NCCPE), in recognition of the commitment and visible support of its staff in participation and development of engagement events and activities. 

Announced live at the NCCPE Engage Conference 2021, the award was presented by special guest host Dr Karen Salt, Deputy Director for R&D Culture and Environment for UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).

“We are really proud to have won this award. It is a wonderful recognition of the past 19 years as we have embedded engagement with the public at the heart of the facility,” said Isabelle Boscaro-Clarke, Diamond’s Head of Communications and Engagement. “The award is credit to the time and energy given by our staff and contractors from open days, school visits and the Diamond academy which welcomes school students for work experience to supporting our staff and users in their own local engagement activities. In fact in non-covid times, we have the same footfall as a National Trust House, so this is a real pat on the back for everyone that has been involved. We see this as the first step and are looking forward to cementing the recommendations so that we can grow these programmes further.”

Paul Manners, Co-Director of the NCCPE said: “We are delighted to be able to award Diamond Light Source a Bronze Watermark award. There are dedicated Public Engagement staff who do excellent work to support public engagement and many of the facility’s staff, students and users participate in large events to share their work with the public. Many staff and students spoke about the skills they gained from engagement and the enjoyment it brought them.

David Price, Public Engagement Manager at Diamond adds; “We can be very proud of the work we carry out at Diamond and the Bronze award is very much a recognition of both our investment and commitment to PE and to its continuing development. It has also been a very useful process and the action plan will help with future plans and improvement. It was noted several times that the NCCPE were impressed by the quality of the engagement we were doing and the attitude of our staff.  The recommended future development was around systems and structure, for example getting an advisory panel in place and developing reward/recognition.”

More information online