The Registrar’s Civic Engagement Award has been launched to commend outstanding contributions made by Trinity staff members to civic engagement. The award will acknowledge those who have demonstrated exceptional achievements in engaging with society during the course of their teaching or research.
The award will identify staff who have been actively involved in civic engagement in Trinity through community-based research and/or community-based learning. Projects should relate to addressing societal needs while providing opportunities to members of the college community to become engaged citizens.
Registrar Professor Paula Murphy praised the launch of the award. “The award will honour staff members who have distinguished themselves in this area and whose work acts as an inspiration to others,” she said. Murphy foresees the work as raising “public awareness of a University embedded in and working with society”.
Projects can be nominated by current and former staff and students, after which successful nominees will be invited to complete an application form. Both academic and non-academic staff members are eligible for nomination but must be members of staff at the time of nomination.
The award builds on the goals outlined in College’s Strategic Plan 2014-2019 to “engage wider society, demonstrate institutional leadership and secure Trinity’s future”. The criteria call for a project which demonstrates significant impact in the creation and development of a just society, embeds values of equality, pluralism, and sustainability in research and/or teaching, and communicates the implications of research and teaching in the public domain.
The award will be determined by a review panel. The panel will be chaired by the registrar and include members of the Engagement Advisory Group. A representative of the student body will be present on the panel.
The registrar is the custodian of College’s Statutes and responsible for graduation ceremonies, as well as chairing the Academic Appeals Committee and the Student Disciplinary Committee. College’s Statutes include a note on the importance of College recognising the “contributions of its members to the civic and cultural life of Dublin, Ireland, and the world”.
The winning project will be awarded €2000 to support its advancement. The project will be showcased during the academic year 2018/19 in a manner suitable to the medium of the work. An award ceremony will be hosted by the registrar during Trinity Term.