Dr Rehan Shah, leading a cross-institutional team of multi-disciplinary colleagues comprising Prof Anne Preston (Professor of Interdisciplinary Education, UCL) along with two student researchers from Queen Mary and UCL, has been awarded one of three prestigious research grants administered by the RAISE (Researching, Advancing and Inspiring Student Engagement) Network.

The proposed project will support the co-design of a new, shared social entrepreneurship module in which students will work with East London community organisations to develop socially driven entrepreneurial ideas using ethical and creative applications of Generative AI. The funding supports the development stage featuring a partnership team made up of two paid student co-researchers, a community partner, and two academic staff members who will collaboratively design the module structure, assessment, and GenAI learning activities. The project builds on existing student–community engagement work at QMUL and UCL East and responds to student interest in learning that is locally relevant, socially impactful, and future-focused. By co-creating the curriculum with students and communities, the project aims to model a more democratic and socially responsible approach to educational design.

Through a series of co-design workshops with the students and community partner, the project will deliver a publishable module blueprint of the module and a short, open-access resource on student–community co-design shared via the RAISE website. Dissemination avenues will also include the annual RAISE conference in Sept 2026 and a practice-based paper publication in RAISE's flagship journal.

Having received 33 applications from a broad range of applicants, the panel noted that the fund was very competitive this year with a success rate of 12% with funding provided to projects that had a clear research element, addressed timely topics and collectively had the potential for impact across the RAISE community with a clear collaborative, participatory and/ or co-creation element with students.

The panel particularly commented on the "strong research proposal with clear value covering social impact through student and community engagement. It clearly involves students as co-partners with inclusion as co-applicants being a notable strength. The project offers multiple accessible outputs suitable for open access and with potential use beyond the institution."

This project directly aligns with RAISE’s mission to embed meaningful student partnership in research, practice, and curriculum change and will provide a transferable model that other institutions can adopt to support student partnership, ethical GenAI use, and community-engaged curriculum development. It will therefore contributes not only to institutional enhancement, but also to the wider scholarly conversation about the role of students as co-designers and co-researchers in higher education.