Why get involved?

The Making a Difference Awards celebrate the outstanding achievements of our staff, students, alumni and external partners who are making a positive impact on our University, our communities and the wider world.

This is your opportunity to have your commitment and successes recognised and celebrated. Over the past year, individuals and teams across our University community have achieved remarkable things now is the time to share their stories and highlight their impact.

Winning or being shortlisted for a Making a Difference Award can help raise your profile and, just as importantly, shine a spotlight on the important work you are doing.

Previous winners and highly commended recipients say that receiving a Making a Difference Award has helped develop their projects further, highlighted the impact of their work, provided well-deserved recognition to those involved and, in some cases, secured further resources.

The awards provide a platform to share some of the very best social responsibility activities from across the University, and celebrate the University’s and individuals’ contribution to wider society. By entering the Awards, you can help make a difference by driving change and inspiring others to act, and by sharing your story with others, you can make even more of an impact.

This year’s Making a Difference Awards also supports our global fundraising and volunteering campaign, Challenge Accepted which aims to to drive transformative change across research, student support, innovation and culture and back bold solutions to the world’s most pressing problems. Another good reason to get involved! 

There are nine award categories covering many aspects of social responsibility. Find out which is most relevant to your project or initiative on our award categories page.

You can enter the awards yourself or nominate a colleague or external partner. All entries should be submitted through our online entry form.

Read about our 2025 Awards winners.