BU Research Blog

The National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement (NCCPE) held their second national conference on 29 and 30 November 2011 in Bristol and three members of staff from Bournemouth University School of Health and Social Care were lucky enough to attend this highly stimulating, engaging and informative conference.

The conference themes were:

• making an impact with your research
• creating an engagement culture
• effective partnerships and engaging students

There was representation from universities across the United Kingdom and Ireland as well as from several Research Councils, HEFCE and a large number of research funding bodies and support organisations.

A summary of the conference discussions will be posted on the NCCPE website shortly. See http://www.publicengagement.ac.uk/news-and-events/events/engage-2011-making-impact

We chose from a wide range of workshops in addition to the four plenary sessions. Much of the conference content was about learning from the Beacon sites in Manchester, Edinburgh, Durham/Newcastle, Norwich, UCL, and Wales. http://www.publicengagement.ac.uk/about/beacons

We learned about the manifesto for public engagement which 50 UK universities have signed up to and we heard from two universities who have signed the manifesto and who talked about their work in developing a strategic approach to public engagement and its impact on the university, its students and staff and its impact on society. Successes in public engagement lead to successes in securing funding. http://www.publicengagement.ac.uk/why-does-it-matter/manifesto

The NCCPE introduced a tool, ‘the Edge tool’ for universities to undertake their own baseline assessment of where they are in relation to the levels of public engagement which helps to plan a way forward for embedding an engagement culture across the organisation. https://www.publicengagement.ac.uk/sites/default/files/The%20EDGE%20tool.pdf

We also heard about the guidance available from the RCUK about how to use public engagement with research as a pathway to impact www.rcuk.ac.uk/kei/impacts

We heard about a variety of approaches to public engagement, ranging from TV appearances with consequent email communications from members of the public, public lectures, visits to schools, engaging local businesses and community partners through to dialogue with members of the public (guidance at http://edinburghbeltane.net/content/dialoguetheory and http://edinburghbeltane.net/content/dialoguehandbook).

If you would like to hear more about the conference and how you might increase public engagement in your work, please get in touch with Louise Worswick lworswick@bournemouth.ac.uk , Jennifer Roddis jroddis@bournemouth.ac.uk or Angela Turner-Wilson wilsona@bournemouth.ac.uk

As part of the new Fusion strategy, BU is committed to investing in public engagement and developing an engagement culture. The UET has recently approved a proposal to invest in two public engagement posts in 2012 – further details on the blog soon!

We are looking for a volunteers to represent BU and to attend Engage 2011: Making an Impact next week.

Engage 2011 is the annual conference of the National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement and will be held on Tuesday 29 and Wednesday 30 November in Bristol. Delegates can choose to attend for one day or both days.

Further information about the event (including the programme) can be found here: http://www.publicengagement.ac.uk/news-and-events/events/engage-2011-making-impact

Your attendance will be fully funded by the RDU. If you’re interested in attending contact me (jnortham@bournemouth.ac.uk) as soon as possible and I’ll arrange it for you.

Public engagement is a hot topic in the world of HE at the moment! Over the past 12-18 months in particular there has been a huge push to increase the volume and quality of public engagement.  The main reasons for this push have been the increased prominence of the research impact agenda, the need to demonstrate the societal value of research, and accountability to the public purse. In return for contributing to society through public engagement, universities have much to gain and the benefits of this public engagement activities are felt by the university, its staff and students, and the wider public.

BU will be focusing a lot of energy and passion on public engagement in the near future! Attending Engage 2011 is an excellent opportunity for you to find out all about public engagement and to champion it in your Schools.