National Civic Impact Accelerator
Queen Mary is a delivery partner on the NCIA, a national initiative supporting UK universities to deliver meaningful, measurable civic strategies and activities.
The NCIA is funded by Research England and aims to increase the connectivity, momentum, and effectiveness of the HE sector’s civic activities for local societal, economic, and environmental benefit and maximise the contribution universities can make towards addressing societal challenges and responding to policy priorities.
Equitable Partnerships for Civic Engagement toolkit
When universities, local councils, NHS Trusts, schools, charities, businesses and community groups work together, they can achieve far more than they could alone. The Queen Mary civic and public engagement teams have been working with colleagues from universities across England and their civic partners to explore how we enable more equitable partnership working together.
Partnerships are essential for civic engagement – but some partnerships are more equitable than others and collaboration isn’t always easy — differences in resources, capacity and expectations can get in the way of trust and shared success.
This toolkit is here to help change that. It offers practical advice and tools to help you build more equal partnerships — ones that recognise everyone’s contributions, share credit fairly and deliver stronger outcomes for communities.
About this toolkit
Created by the civic team at Queen Mary University of London through the National Civic Impact Accelerator (NCIA), this toolkit was developed together with colleagues from universities, civic organisations and community partners. Its aim is simple: to help make partnerships fairer, longer-lasting and more impactful.
What’s inside
The toolkit is designed to be hands-on and adaptable. Inside, you’ll find:
- Principles for equitable partnership – a shared foundation to guide your work together.
- Interactive exercises – to help map partners, explore values and set shared expectations.
- Case studies – real examples of successful civic partnerships from across the UK.
- Resources and tools – ready to use or adapt for your own context.
How it was created
The toolkit builds on workshops held in London, Sheffield and online with more than 50 partners from universities, local authorities, health organisations and community groups. Their experiences and ideas directly shaped the principles, exercises and examples you’ll find here.
This work is part of the NCIA programme, led by Sheffield Hallam University with partners including the National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement, City-REDI at the University of Birmingham, the Institute for Community Studies and the OECD. Together, we’re working to strengthen civic engagement and build a clearer picture of what really works.
Download the toolkit: NCIA Equitable Partnerships for Civic Engagement toolkit [PDF 1,462KB]
