Beacons for Public Engagement – funded by the UK funding councils,

Research Councils UK and the Wellcome Trust

Embedding a culture of public engagement in Higher Education Institutions (HEI’s).

Edinburgh Beltane

Beacon North-East

Manchester

Wales BeaconCUE East

UCL

The National Coordinating Centre

Edinburgh Beltane Partners

Edinburgh Beltane Theme

Encouraging citizen participation and understanding of areas of research relevant to public policy such as health and life sciences, energy and the environment.

What is Public Engagement?

We want to explore what PE means to you.

Axes of Public Engagement

Audience

Specific Interest Group

60+

Families

Open to Anyone

Other

Secondary School

Young People

Adults

Primary School

Pre School

Lecture / Talk Writing Exhibition

Workshop OtherPublic

input in research

Policy Event

Debate or Discussion

Collection of Research data

Type of engagementKT /advice

4 23

16

10012

2221

15

5 25

7

30

27

620

26

32

1

142

17

24

19

70

8

10

93

18

11

13

What do we mean by Public Engagement ?

The Spectrum of Public EngagementInformationprovision

Consultation Involvement Delegation

telling people what you do

asking people what they think

of what you do

asking people about their

priorities

giving peopledirect control

Interactive Activities

Writing Books

Public Debates

Citizens Juries

Policy Forums

Public Lectures

• Informing• Teaching• Enabling• Learning• Participating

• Listening• Discussing• Networking• Advising• Promoting

Communicating with public audiences

What is Public Engagement?

What is Public Engagement?

Our funders say

it is not focused on:

PR, Recruitment,

or Widening Participation

Why do Public Engagement?

• It’s a good thing to do

• The public pay for research and have the right to know/be involved

• To inspire future generations of researchers

• To make research relevant to society

• Learn from GM & MMR

• To ensure future funding …

Why do Public Engagement?

Research Councils expect those who receive funding to:

• demonstrate an awareness of the social and ethical implications of their research, beyond usual research conduct considerations, and take account of public attitudes towards those issues

• engage actively with the public at both the local and national levels about their research and its broader implications

Personal Benefits

Personal satisfaction

Recognition

Transferable skill development

Crossing boundaries

Social interaction

Is Public Engagement the Key to Better Academic Performance?

• “scientists active in wider dissemination are also more active

academically.”

• “popularization-active scientists from engineering sciences have an

average publication rate over their professional life of 2.12 papers per

year, instead of 1.93 for the inactive ones, p-value = 0.07).”

• “However, their dissemination activities have almost no impact

(positive or negative) on their careers.”

Scientists who engage with society perform better academically, Jensen, Pablo; Rouquier, Jean-Baptiste; Kreimer, Pablo; Croissant, Yves in Science and Public Policy, Volume 35, Number 7, August 2008 , pp. 527-541(15)

How can the Edinburgh Beltane help you?