Mapping for Change has won the 2013 UCL Social Enterprise Project of the Year Award for its’ innovative work using on-line mapping with local communities and on ‘citizen science’.
The award was presented at the UCL Bloomsbury Theatre at a major ceremony on May 14th alongside other awards to entrepreneurs and a celebration of enterprise activities at UCL. This is the third year in which UCL recognises social enterprises as part of its annual awards ceremony.
Co-founder and Director, Louise Francis, said “It is a great honour for Mapping for Change to have received this award and to be recognised for the work that we’ve undertaken over the last few years. One of the most exciting challenges comes from the communities that we work with who continue to push us to find novel ways in which we can support them to address a variety of social and environmental issues through the application of mapping“.
Over the last two years, Mapping for Change (MfC) has worked with a diverse range of communities in the UK, Poland, Italy and Finland covering issues ranging from air pollution through dog fouling and noise to the integration of migrants into the local community. The work on air pollution involved MfC training local people in how to set up air pollution monitoring equipment so that they can gather their own data. Communities have used the local maps produced to negotiate action in pollution with local councils.
Professor Malcolm Grant, UCL President and Provost added: “Innovation and entrepreneurship are integral to our university. Since UCL’s inception it has been unafraid to foster new, and sometimes radical, ideas. It is this spirit that has led to many achievements of our academics, students and alumni over the years.”
