³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ

The Collaboration Kickstarter is a fund for communities in Northwest London and ³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ researchers who want to work differently. Not as participants and experts but as equal research partners.

It awards up to £10,000 to participatory research approaches where communities have a real say in the research questions asked, the methods used to answer them, and what happens with the new knowledge that is created.

This fund is co-produced by community members and ³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ staff who recognise that universities often hold more institutional power than the communities they work with. We aim to shift that imbalance by funding local expertise to develop collaborative research questions that address the real-world challenges affecting our communities.

The fund is open to joint applications from ³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ researchers and community partners, and we strongly encourage ideas for research that come from and are led by people in our Northwest London communities.

Applications to the fund will be open from 12 October and must be submitted by 11 December 2026.

What we're looking for

We recognise all kinds of knowledge and want to help develop research where:

• The ideas come from the community or are genuinely shaped by them, rather than only being brought in by researchers.
• How knowledge, data, and findings are shared is agreed upfront, with communities having a meaningful say in how outputs are used and who they benefit.
• Local communities share the benefit of the research as well as ³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ.
• Communities share control throughout, including the right to change direction.
• ³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ researchers are willing to follow, not just lead using their skills and expertise to address community needs and interests as well as their own.

The Collaboration Kickstarter can support new projects or be used to make existing work participatory. It cannot support work that is already funded from elsewhere or proposed as part of an already existing project. When applying, please explain whether any part of the project is already underway and how your proposal is different from or additional to your existing activities.

Application support

If you are a community group or organisation with a research idea you would like to explore with an ³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ researcher, you can and a member of our team will be in touch.

If you're an ³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ researcher with an idea for a Kickstarter project, we strongly encourage you to get in touch before applying by contacting societal_engagement@imperial.ac.uk.

If you are a member of the community or an ³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ researcher and you haven't yet found a partner to work with you should still get in touch! We can't always guarantee we'll be able to make a match, but we'll do everything we can to help.

Terms of Community Engagement

Our terms of engagement have been developed in dialogue and consultation with ³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ staff and community partners. This has included working with the Collaboration Kickstarter’s co-production team as well as workshopping the terms at ³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ’s Engagement Day in 2024 and, finally, piloting and reviewing the terms with our first cohort of Collaboration Kickstarter teams.

The terms lay out how we expect all partners to work together and should be made clear and available to everyone engaging with an ³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ project or activity at the beginning of your time working together.

• Make sure everyone understands the context for your work together and what will happen next.
  It is important for everyone to know why the work is happening, what will happen with their contributions, and how this will influence work going forward. Take time to explain this at the start of an engagement and/or ensure written information is made available both before you start work together and on the day.
• Share a complete timeline for your work together.
  It should be clear how long your project or activity will last. This should include time to reflect on your work together, celebrate, and discuss collaboratively what could happen next.
• Ask how you can support each other to participate.
  Thinking about who is involved and asking what steps you can all take to support one another to contribute will ensure your work is as accessible and as equitable possible. Consider whether your work deals with sensitive or controversial topics and plan how you will signpost and support those participating where necessary.
• Make sure everyone knows who the project lead is and how to get in touch with them.
  People may have questions, need to raise issues, or want to request additional support to participate in an activity.
• Recognise and value everyone’s contribution and time.
  Community members should be paid for their contributions. If this is not possible, transparency is important. Be clear around payment and expenses and consider how you will recognise everyone’s contributions. This should include sharing the budget and planned spend for a project, highlighting payments to partners, reimbursement and any benefits they will receive.

You can read more about our Terms of Community Engagement here.

Get in touch

If you have any other questions about the Collaboration Kickstarter, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with the Public and Community Engagement team.