We promote a range of initiatives throughout the year. Our aim is to celebrate events that reflect our diverse and supportive community, providing opportunities to educate, raise awareness or to be charitable. We are always open to suggestions, so if you have any ideas, please contact [email protected].
Active projects
EDI innovation fund
The Institutional EDI Committee (IEDIC) is delighted to invite applications to the EDI Innovation Fund, offering grants of up to £500 to turn your ideas into action.
Whether you are planning a project, event or activity, we want to support initiatives that help create a more equitable, diverse and inclusive EHU community and help bring our EDI Strategy to life. If your idea could improve, enhance or develop our approach to EDI, we would love to hear from you.
Information about applying for the EDI innovation fund
Monday 9 November 2026 at 9am – via the online EDI Innovation Fund Application Form.
Applications close Friday 4 December 2026 at 5pm.
Any member of Edge Hill University staff.
Applications for EDI projects involving staff/student co-creation are welcomed but must be submitted, led and managed by a staff member.
A total of £2,000 is available this year, with a maximum grant of £500 per project. We welcome applications for smaller amounts, enabling us to support more projects.
Departments are encouraged to provide part or match funding where possible, helping projects extend their reach and impact; however, this is not required for an application to be successful.
Project information
We have no explicit list of projects that the grant should be used for, but some examples include:
- Delivering training or professional development
- Exploring an EDI issue through research or consultation
- Running an event, lecture, seminar, workshop or campaign
- Purchasing reusable resources or materials
- Testing a creative new approach to advancing EDI
Projects should support the EDI Strategy and focus on one or more of the priority areas below. We welcome creative approaches and will also consider projects addressing an important EDI issue not listed, where the need is clearly demonstrated.
- Inclusive recruitment, progression and leadership: projects that address barriers, broaden participation and support fair access to development and career opportunities.
- Staff belonging, networks and allyship: initiatives that strengthen staff networks, encourage active allyship and create a more inclusive workplace culture.
- EDI learning and capability: practical activities that build staff confidence, knowledge and skills in applying inclusive practice within their roles.
- Inclusive working practices and wellbeing: projects that improve accessibility, flexibility, wellbeing and inclusion in everyday working environments and processes.
- Evidence, insight and innovation: staff-led research, consultation or pilot activity that identifies inequalities, tests new approaches and supports measurable improvement.
- Accountability and sustainable change: projects that embed meaningful EDI objectives within team planning, professional development, decision-making or institutional initiatives.
The project must take place in the current academic year.
Yes, the grant holder must provide an evaluation report on the project – how successful it was in meeting the original objectives, lessons learned and recommendations.
Judges will assess applications against their alignment with the EDI Strategy, demonstrated need, anticipated impact, feasibility within the timeframe, value for money and potential for sustainable change. Funding decisions aim to support a balanced range of projects across the priority areas. Applications should provide enough information to show that the project is needed, achievable and likely to deliver its intended outcomes.
We expect the fund to be competitive. If your application is not selected, this does not mean that your idea lacks value; it may simply reflect the limited funding available or the need to support a balanced range of projects.
Once funding has been awarded, the expectation is that the project will be delivered on time and in budget.
Successful grant holders must submit a short evaluation report no later than two months after completion of their project (a report template will be provided).
If you have any queries about the EDI Innovation Fund, please contact [email protected].
Successful applications
Celebrating Neurodiversity
An awareness-raising event for EHU students and staff. A three day event celebrating neurodiversity (focusing on SpLD related neurodiversity – dyslexia, dyspraxia, ADHD) with daily themes/activities/interactive events. Online and physical student resource packs to aid with study skills development, whilst promoting academic resilience and wellbeing.
Facilitating Inclusive Practice in UniSkills – Library and Learning Services
The aim of Facilitating Inclusive Practice in UniSkills will be to increase awareness and confidence when met with diverse cohorts of students and it will focus on visual, hearing, interaction, and comprehension-related barriers and how staff can identify and remove them in hybrid and in-person sessions to enable everyone to participate fully.
The funding will purchase bespoke training by AbilityNet.
The aim of the session will be to increase awareness and confidence when met with diverse cohorts of students and it will focus on visual, hearing, interaction, and comprehension-related barriers and how staff can identify and remove them in hybrid and in-person sessions to enable everyone to participate fully.
What staff will learn:
- Best practices for how to plan and deliver accessible and inclusive classroom sessions.
- The importance of creating conditions in classroom environments so that all can participate fully.
- Insights into barriers that can arise in classroom environments including vision, hearing, physical, comprehension and participation related considerations.
- Using interactive and practical tasks, and real-life case studies to learn how technology can help achieve this.
Facilitating inclusive practice in UniSkills with a focus on in-person academic skills support – Library and Learning Services
Since purchasing bespoke training from AbilityNet using the EDI Innovation fund, our Student Engagement team have identified practical ways to create inclusive and accessible environments and fully understand the barriers students can face in hybrid or in-person sessions.
UniSkills is the centralised academic skills support at Edge Hill University delivered by the Student Engagement team in Library and Learning Services. It is a package of digital resources, classroom sessions, workshops, and 1-2-1 support designed to help students develop a range of essential academic skills.
After delivering all support online during the pandemic, alongside noticeable increases in students with ADHD and Autistic Spectrum Condition diagnoses, the return to face-to-face teaching reinforced the importance of ensuring all our provision is inclusive and accessible. By anticipating the needs of all students and demonstrating inclusive practice, should be able to remove any barriers to learning.
With the EDI Innovation funding we arranged for the Student Engagement team to have bespoke training from AbilityNet, a charity that supports anyone living with any disability or impairment to use technology to achieve their goals at home, at work and in education.
The workshop focused on visual, hearing, interaction, and comprehension related barriers and how we can identify and remove them in hybrid and in-person sessions to enable all students to participate fully. The workshop included:
- best practices for how to plan and deliver accessible and inclusive classroom sessions
- the importance of creating conditions in classroom environments so that all can participate fully
- insights into barriers that can arise in classroom environments including vision, hearing, physical, comprehension and participation related considerations. Our team drew on individual experiences to demonstrate why these arise and how to remove or avoid creating barriers in the first place
- using interactive and practical tasks, and real-life case studies to learn how technology can help achieve our goals.
Following the workshop, the team brainstormed ideas about how we could apply what we learned to identify practical ways to create inclusive and accessible environments and fully understand the barriers students can face in hybrid or in-person sessions. We:
- created a best practice inclusive toolkit to curate and share some of the lessons learned
- created an accessibility checklist on our webpages which surfaces what accessibility measures we provide in all our in-person and online appointments and workshops
- now include an accessibility question in our post appointment and workshop surveys to measure satisfaction with accessibility of the sessions
- send session recordings with captions post sessions (and are assessing how we can send resources (PowerPoint / handouts) to students in advance of sessions)
- provide transcripts for all recordings to give students options about how they want to digest the information
- liaise with the Academic Engagement team in Library and Learning Services to respond to feedback regarding accessibility from programme boards
- surface and promote accessibility in eResources within digital library embedded sessions
- monitor developments related to accessibility in the software/platforms we use to produce resources and materials
- added accessibility good practice as a standing agenda item at the Student Engagement team Community of Practice
- continue to have regular team awareness raising / training / forums to keep abreast of developments in this area.
Helen Jamieson, Claire Swanwick, Helen Briscoe
(Student Engagement team, Library and Learning Services)
Developing awareness of neurodiversity and supportive therapeutic skills – Student Services (Mental Health and Wellbeing Team)
Students with autism spectrum conditions (ASC) are less likely to complete their degrees than their neurotypical classmates. Many factors contribute to this, including overwhelming sensory environments, social isolation, and feelings of not belonging, which can impact their confidence and self-esteem.
However, with the right support, these students can succeed academically and socially. Anxiety and depression are common mental health issues for students with ASC. These students often face social challenges, loneliness, and lack of sleep, which can lead to lower satisfaction in life.
NICE recommends that therapy be adjusted to fit the needs of people with ASC. It is important to make changes at every step of mental health services, from the first contact to setting therapy goals and measuring progress.
The Mental Health and Wellbeing Team recognised there was a deficit in knowledge in this area and that they needed to develop their skills in order to be able to provide a more inclusive service to the students of EHU. Currently, around 200 students at Edge Hill University identify as ASC/neurodiverse.
Student Services were awarded £500 for their submission to provide
tailor made training from the ADHD Foundation in order to improve understanding for all staff
- The training helped to provide information about how to make the physical environment in both waiting and therapy rooms less overwhelming
- Developed knowledge and skills about ways staff can change the way therapy is delivered in the service to make it more ASC and neurodiverse friendly
- Provided guidance on simpler ways to ask for and use feedback from all clients to make sure the information about the service is clear, concise, and specific
- To understand the importance of language and terms that are used.
- To understand how to support students with ASC to be able to recognise/label and control their own feelings and emotions
- To help Identify ways to engage students with ASC in therapy sessions more easily.
- To consider making assessment tools more user-friendly for all students in order to be able to assess and manage risk more effectively.
This training will provide valuable support for achieving the Mental Health Charter Award.
Faculty of Health Social Care & Medicine
Your Choice, Your Voice Conference took place on the same day as World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogues and Development – an awareness day marked for celebrating diversity and raising awareness of the issues of racism and discrimination.
The event includes presentations highlighting the personal experiences of individuals who have encountered challenges such as mental health conditions, physical illnesses, learning disabilities, caregiving and racial discrimination. These stories aimed to shed light on the resilience and strategies used to overcome such obstacles.
FAS English & Creative Arts
CARVE, a short film
The project created an exciting and innovative opportunity for an entirely female and non-binary identifying production team to work collaboratively to produce a professional standard short film.
The ambition was to give the students greater technical skills, the experience of working on a professionally run set, working with industry-standard equipment, experience of professional post-production and the process of submitting to, and attending, profile-enhancing film festivals.
Faculty of Health Social Care & Medicine
Addressing stigma and discrimination in mental health and learning disabilities
This event was led by student nurses from the mental health and learning disabilities nursing department. There were a variety of presentations on topics relating to mental health, learning disabilities and autism with a particular focus on stigma and discrimination.
Faculty of Education
The Anti-Racist Film Club is an initiative offering a structured space for staff and students to critically engage with films, shorts, TV shows, and documentaries that explore issues of race, equality, and social justice.