BU Research Blog

Why get involved in the ESRC Festival of Social Science this year?

Benefits: Fantastic for your academic profile

Activities can range from engaging people with social science concepts through staging debates to involving key stakeholders in shaping research priorities and directions. Done well, public engagement can build trust and understanding between the social science research community and a wide range of groups, from policymakers through to school children.

Public engagement can help you strengthen your research questions or improve the response rate to data collection methods. It can also build on and support the wider activities of your strategy. One of the most profound joys of public engagement is its unpredictability: fresh perspectives, challenging questions, lateral insights – all can help to sharpen thinking, release precious energy and creativity and unlock new collaborations and resources.

To apply, you will need to complete an application form, available on the staff intranet, stating details of the type of event you’d like to run.  The application can be accessed via staff intranet

Please contact Joanna Pawlik (jpawlik@bournemouth.ac.uk) or Genna West (gwest@bournemouth.ac.uk) if you would like to discuss your event idea or for further information.