The University of Nottingham has committed to maximising our positive impact on our local communities – this is our ‘civic’ commitment.

Simply by being such a large institution, we already have a significant impact locally, through our employment and procurement, our physical footprint and the students we bring here from all over the world. But there is much more we can do to support the aims and ambitions of key local organisations and the communities they serve.

Across the university, there are hundreds of research projects, student initiatives and staff schemes which, for example, engage with local audiences or help local communities to solve a problem.

Harnessing this activity, ensuring it’s joined up, and showcasing the amazing work that is going on is a key priority to enable us to achieve our civic ambitions. Here are three ways you might be able to help us with that:

Could you be a Civic Lead for your Faculty?

To help identify and develop civic activities across the university, we’re looking for Civic Leads for each Faculty. They will help shape the university’s civic agenda as well as communicating and embedding civic activity within their Faculty. More details of the role and how to submit an expression of interest are available here.

The deadline to let us know you are interested is Friday 1 July 2022.

Think civic – visit our new Civic Affairs SharePoint site

We’ve launched a new Civic Affairs SharePoint site to help explain and showcase the work going on in this area and to signpost helpful resources and contacts.

The site hosts resources and information to encourage colleagues to think civic and unearth the (as yet) untapped civic impact and potential across the university. Take a look, and get in touch if you’re doing something civic – we’d love to showcase it.

Is your work contributing to the aims of the Universities for Nottingham Civic Agreement?

Universities for Nottingham – our ground-breaking civic collaboration with Nottingham Trent University – recently marked a new phase in its development with the signing of a refreshed, revitalised Civic Agreement with eight other local partners, from local authorities through to healthcare trusts and the most recent addition of Vision West Notts College.

The Civic Agreement brings together 15 initiatives across five themes, setting out significant shared ambitions and challenges for the future. Themes include:

• Economic prosperity
• Education partnership, skills & employment
• Environmental sustainability
• Health & wellbeing
• Community connections

Full details of the Agreement and our signatory partners as well a wealth of information on the UfN partnership, case studies, news and updates are available on the Universities for Nottingham website.

If you’re working in partnership with NTU and /or any of our UfN signatory partners, we’d love to hear about that, via the UfN pages of our SharePoint site.