BU Research Blog

This is part of our series on using online environments and platforms in engaging public audiences with research. You can read more about how BU has adapted to online engagement over the past year in a previous post.

The ESRC Festival of Social Science is an annual celebration of the social sciences, offers a fascinating insight into some of the country’s leading social science research and how it influences our social, economic and political lives – both now and in the future. Bournemouth University is a partner of the Festival and has contributed events and activities every year since 2011. For researchers, the Festival is a fantastic opportunity for funded support towards engaging specific audiences in research and generating research impact.

The Festival of November 2020 was unlike any other. When we began preparations in April 2020, no one knew what situation we would be in by the Festival week in November. Luckily, we requested that all applicants propose online events, events with an online backup plan, or activities that could still happen within restrictions. In response, our academics proposed an impressive variety of innovative events to share their research with public audiences. We whittled applications down and worked with the event leaders to support and develop their plans as we moved through the changing world of summer and autumn 2020.

In the end, this approach paid off well, the Festival was held as a digital-first event and we held five live online events and an online exhibition, engaging a wide variety of public audiences with our varied research.

Despite having developed skills in online teaching for several months, our event organisers’ plans challenged them to new levels in hosting their online events. All of the events juggled multiple contributors and presentations, some using video and interactive engagement tools. These elements provided a lot to consider, as event organiser Dr Xun He described in a blog post;

“This was the first public event I did online. To be honest, I was a bit anxious because there could be so many potential technical glitches during the event, not to mention that it would feel so different without being able to talk face-to-face to the audience in this unusual time. There were also technical considerations to take on board to run an engaging public event.”

Paying attention to the details of how you present yourself on video can often be an afterthought, so it was impressive to see how event holders handled multiple high-quality webcams, microphones and lighting to provide to provide the clearest link between themselves and their audience as they shared their research.

Despite online events providing unique difficulties and opportunities, it is important that these do not distract from the principles of high quality public engagement with research. We supported event-holders to be clear on what they wanted to achieve with their events, the audience they wanted to engage with and the best methods for doing so. In addition, our academics evaluated how the audience engaged with their research through observation, small group discussions, polls, quizzes, surveys and note boards such as padlet.

Once again, it is difficult to know for sure what the ESRC Festival of Social Science 2021 will look like – what restrictions we may be working within and what new opportunities may be presented. Our call for proposals will launch soon (watch this blog and the Public Engagement with Research Network for updates) and I’m looking forward to seeing the innovative plans developed by BU to share our diverse and fascinating research.