Tagged / On Tour

January 29, 2015

Flying the KEIT for Knowledge Exchange and Impact with BU’s research

Business Engagement, Knowledge Exchange Naomi Kay

The Knowledge Exchange and Impact Team (fondly known to us as KEIT) are a relatively new team within RKEO. KEIT is made up of an enthusiastic group of people working on exciting institution wide projects aimed at promoting research and engaging everyone from businesses to the general public with the work carried out by our academic community. As a new team we wanted to take the time to introduce some of our favourite successes from 2014, and let you who you can contact if you have an opportunity you think we should be involved with.

Public Engagement

In 2014 we facilitated circa 15,000 engagements with BU research through activities such as the Festival of Learning, On Tour and Café Scientifique. In December we headed off to the National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement’s annual conference and presented the story of “Professor Puzzles Big Day Out”. The story followed our colourful mascot as he discovered the Festival of Learning, booked his tickets and came along to sessions such as “A Family Safari”, took part in fringe activities to build on his football skills and gave his feedback on his experience through a focus group. The story and gave us a chance to convey the unique nature of the Festival of Learning to our public engagement peers from across the UK. One of the highlights for us was hearing was our session pulled out by delegates as one of the highlights of the conference during the plenary.

Knowledge Transfer Partnerships

In 2014, BU received funding offers for three new Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP). This demonstrates that BU is increasing it’s KTP activity and also our strong links with business. A KTP is a part-funded innovative project between the University and business which is of mutual benefit.

The approved KTPs are diverse in nature and highlight the range of expertise across the Institution:

Five Rivers Child Care and the Faculty of Health and Social Science – To develop, implement and validate an innovative model for the evaluation of intervention and treatment for children in a foster care environment, taking into account the complex developmental, emotional and behavioural needs of the children.
Chantacre and the Faculty of Science and Technology – To develop capability allowing combining cutting edge technologies into a unique solution resulting in internal efficiencies and pioneer new practices in the SME market for mobile convergence.
Nautilus International Risk Consultants and the Faculty of Science and Technology – To embed innovative capability to automatically generate virtual 3D terrain landscapes. This will enhance situational awareness for training and operational purposes in extremely challenging environments in Military/Other Government Departments.

2015 sees the 40th birthday of the KTP programme. This year will be used to celebrate successes from KTP over the past 40 years and our very own Rachel Clarke, KE Adviser (KTP) is on the national steering group for the KTP@40 initiative.

Student Engagement

We’ve been working to enthuse students about the exciting research being done at BU. At the end of last year we took over the atrium on two occasions and ran mini activities for students to have a go at. Stalls included topics such as marine diving videos, setting secure passwords and live action international server hacking maps, psychological taste tests, and displays of microscopic organisms. Over the 2 days over 300 students stopped to interact with stalls and learn more about BU research.

Who’s who

If you’re feeling inspired by our blog post and would like to get involved with some of our projects then feel free to get in touch:

Rebecca Edwards – Knowledge Exchange and Impact Manager

Rachel Bowen – Research Communications Manager

Rachel Clarke – Knowledge Exchange Adviser (KTP)

Jayne Codling – Knowledge Exchange Adviser

Naomi Kay – Public Engagement Officer

Harry Gibson – Public Engagement Event’s Organiser

Sam Squelch – Student Engagement Coordinator

To find out more about us and what we do, take a look at our team page.

November 26, 2014

Public engagement opportunities for PGRS

PG research Naomi Kay

Public engagement is a brilliant way to enhance your skills as an academic, and also to get a new perspective on your research. A good public engagement event should encourage a two way dialog and the goal should be mutual benefit. As the Public Engagement Officer here at BU my role is to support you in delivering your research to the public and ensuring you get something out of it as well! Here are a few upcoming opportunities (with a variety of audiences!) that may interest you. To find out more about any of these opportunities, or to find out more about public engagement in general please do get in touch.

Festival of Learning

The Festival of Learning is running from the 11^th-17^th July and the deadline for proposals is 12 noon on the 19^th December. The festival is open to anyone to submit events, including academics, professional services and students (both undergraduate and postgraduate). Previous events have involved everything from short lectures to whole days spent out on an archaeological dig. To find out more about the festival and about how you can apply click here.

Festival of Learning on Tour

We run on tour events throughout the year however the majority take place over the summer. We’re next going out on tour between the 11^th-13^th December to be part of the Bournemouth Christmas Market. A good activity would be something interactive that’s quick for the public to engage with, on average each engagement last 5 minutes, but gives them a snapshot of your research. We’re still looking for people to join our on tour team for December’s events. This can be a great opportunity to trial an idea with us for as and you can come along for as little as half a day or the whole thing. Email me to find out more.

Explora Science Seeking Volunteers

Explora Science are a charity looking to set up a Science and Discovery Centre in Poole. In order to trial run the centre they are setting up a pop up shop in Poole in February, in which they will put on a number of interactive activities. They need volunteers to help encourage visitors to explore exhibits further. For example, prompting them to push the right button and explaining why things work the way they do. The event is running for two weeks (9^th-20^th) and they need volunteers who can do a minimum of 3 days in that period. In exchange for volunteering they will cover travel expenses, and also provide you with valuable science communication training. Find out more about Explora Science on their website or email me to find out more about the opportunity.

Famelab

Famelab is an international competition aimed at finding the best new voices in science and engineering in which contestants have just three minutes to pitch a scientific concept. The Bristol heat is taking place 10^th December at 7pm. Click here to find out the details and let us know if you’re competing and we can help with your travel expenses.

Café Scientifique

Café Scientifique happens monthly in Boscombe and involves giving a short presentation and then having a discussion with the audience. Take a look at the website for an idea of past events and email if you’d like to run a session.

Public Lectures – University of the Third Age (U3A)

The U3A are interested in a public lecture day at the University. This is likely to take place in April and will involve several speakers throughout the day – possibly around a theme. Let us know if you’d like to be involved or wish to engage with this over 50’s age group.

October 21, 2014

Festival Fever – Inspiration for your Festival of Learning 2015 event!

Festival of Learning gibsonh

Stuck for event ideas for the Festival of learning in 2015!?

Well don’t worry! In this blog post Festival Fever will take over and show you events which have worked well in the past and possibly a few stand-out ideas you may wish to build upon for this year.

Let us take you through a countdown of ‘Hit’ topics and stand out events of last year’s festival as well as eye catching events at the British Science Festival and stand out events you could run in the future!

Hits at last year’s Festival of Learning

5. Marketing and business skills

Have you thought of creating a business event which focuses on marketing? Well if last year’s attendance at this event is anything to go by you will attract a very strong turnout. This event was fully booked last year and is a safe bet to draw in business professionals and members of the public alike! If you can use group discussions in your event this will also enhance the experience for individuals who are attending.

4. Gaming, computers and coding

These topics proved highly popular throughout the festival. Key examples of this success were ‘Is gaming the new reading?’ and ‘Hour of code.’ It really does seem that computers are becoming vital organs in modern life; this means the potential to interest large numbers will always be there when choosing an event of this genre.

3. Everyday professional skills

Teamwork,time management, or the magic of mailbox management. Is there an event you could run that would tap into helping people develop these skills? If you have a clever way to engage the audience in a workshop that can enrich their professional development your event will be in high demand as well as an interesting way to give back to the community.

2. Health and fitness

Health related topics have shown to be popular both in the past at the festival, but also at other UK science festivals. Fitness is something that is at the forefront of many of our minds and if you’ve got an interesting take on this you’ll be sure to get the public onside.

1. Topics involving real-world current issues

Tying your event into current issues can help inspire debate in panel sessions, as well as draw in big audiences. They are also more likely to be picked up for press coverage and could help to boost your event numbers even further.

Eye catching events at the British Science Festival

As you may have seen in an earlier series of blog posts, we recently attended the British Science Festival to get some inspiration on what to include in our own Festival of Learning. You can read the full post of hot events from the festival here, but these were two of our favorites:

-The Huxley debate (As seen at the British Science Festival)

A debate which puts the spotlight on the security flaws of companies such as Facebook and Google can really entice a large number of people, “why is this?” you may ask, the reason is that the companies Facebook and Google touch the lives of the majority of us. This in the media spotlight with recent scandals SnapChat and Icloud storage!

-Your Astonishing Liver/ Health related topics

A further hit from the British Science Festival was ‘Your Astonishing Liver’ this proved to have a very strong turnout, with an audience of varying demographics. The clear strength of all health related topics is their ability to create very strong debates with the audience. In “Your astonishing liver” the panel facilitated a health debate around the right for non-registered organ donors to receive donated organs through the use of electronic voting. By using the response pads and looking at the results on a screen this is an engaging way of illustrating the discussion and capturing data from your event.

Other ideas to set your event apart from the crowd

Take your event offsite to a unique venue – what about approaching the aquarium to find out if you could run your event there?

Run your activity as part of the Festival of Learning On Tour so people get a taster for it in advance?

In more general terms, what can really add to the experience for the general public are events that are uniquely wacky and involve free samples as well as hands on activity. By having a strong blend of these ideas in your event, you can really stand out from the crowd and get your event noticed.

For help and support in developing your event email Naomi Kay, Public Engagement Officer in R&KEO.

BU Research Blog

Tagged / On Tour

Flying the KEIT for Knowledge Exchange and Impact with BU’s research

Public Engagement

Knowledge Transfer Partnerships

Student Engagement

Who’s who

Public engagement opportunities for PGRS

Festival of Learning

Festival of Learning on Tour

Explora Science Seeking Volunteers

Famelab

Café Scientifique

Public Lectures – University of the Third Age (U3A)

Festival Fever – Inspiration for your Festival of Learning 2015 event!

Other services

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Tagged / On Tour

Public Engagement

Knowledge Transfer Partnerships

Student Engagement

Who’s who

Festival of Learning

Festival of Learning on Tour

Explora Science Seeking Volunteers

Famelab

Café Scientifique

Public Lectures – University of the Third Age (U3A)

Other services

Don’t miss a post!

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