Wellcome Trust is pausing the Engagement Fellowships
6-11-19
Wellcome Trust want to explore how they can best meet the leadership needs of the public engagement community.
The Engagement Fellowships have given fellows the opportunity to influence and drive innovation in public engagement, push boundaries with their work, and build their profile and networks. But, as a largely self-directed programme, it has its limitations.
For example:
- when the fellowship ends, it can be hard to transition back to working in an organisation where there may not be freedom to continue the innovation they have started, and for freelancers, it can be difficult to then jumpstart their portfolio career or start a new business
- there are many barriers to attracting a diverse set of applicants in the first place; some people count themselves out of even applying for the fellowship, and we need to understand why.
We want to make sure we’re supporting fellows and future public engagement leaders in the best possible way. This means designing a programme that covers the diverse range of needs and contexts that we draw from, and that clearly addresses the leadership challenges in public engagement.
That’s why we’re taking time to step back, reflect and plan. There will be no funding call for Engagement Fellowships in 2019.