Community Engagement

Connections with our neighbouring communities are important to organisations and individuals at Edinburgh BioQuarter.

BioQuarter is located in the South of Edinburgh, close to the neighbouring communities of Craigmillar, Niddrie, Moredun and Gilmerton. The aim of our community engagement is for these areas to benefit directly from our location, with access to top researchers, clinicians, students, scientists and entrepreneurs.

Put simply, our goal is to be a good neighbour.

Our engagement programme for neighbouring communities has been developed in collaboration with these communities and is led by three guiding principles:

Co-development – We develop our community engagement goals and activity with neighbouring communities.
Partnership working – A range of organisations already work within these neighbouring communities. We work with them, as well as wider organisations with specific expertise so that together our work adds value and maximises impact.
Evidence based – Our approaches look at the evidence-base and incorporate evaluation.

Our approach is to develop a lasting, long-term relationship with local partners. This will ultimately increase the science capital of people living in the local area, improve outcomes for our young people and build a real sense of community in and around BioQuarter.

Our engagement with neighbouring communities was initially developed and spearheaded by the Centre for Regenerative Medicine (CRM), a University of Edinburgh medical research centre based at Edinburgh BioQuarter, where it was pioneered by Dr Cathy Southworth.

Over time, the project and its activities continued to develop and grow, involving more people from many different organisations across the wider campus.

The programme is now led by Edinburgh BioQuarter and sits at the very heart of our vision to provide a welcoming place where people from local community neighbourhoods can walk, relax and influence projects that are revolutionising local and global health and wellbeing.

Our Activities

Our goal is to provide a welcoming place where people from surrounding neighbourhoods and beyond can walk, shop, relax and influence projects that are revolutionising local and global health and wellbeing.

We deliver a range of activities designed to strengthen BioQuarter’s links with our neighbouring communities, including the annual Craigmillar Community Science Festival and BioRhythms, our community choir.

Our activities aim to bring families and organisations from neighbouring areas together with scientists, clinicians, students and businesses based onsite to create a sense of place and belonging.

Our activities

We are passionate about helping our local young people receive a world-class STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) education.

We deliver a range of engaging activities for both primary and secondary school pupils, including our highly successful mentoring programme, STEM Clubs, summer internship, curriculum learning and student-led workshops.

Our STEM activities are all developed alongside education professionals in the neighbouring communities. We also provide CPD training and resources for teachers.

Our activities

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Being good neighbours

Our Approach

Our Story

Our Activities

Community Programmes

Creating a sense of place and belonging

STEM Education

Providing access to a first-rate science education

Get Involved

Our Partners