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The engaging researcher – a coherent approach to sustainable public engagement training for researchers (NW)
Being able to engage the public with their research is a vital skill for today's researchers (see why does public engagement matter?). To ensure the researchers in the region are able to access relevant high quality training and resources in 2010 a suite of activities were undertaken and many sustainable resources were produced. This was made possible through partnership between the Vitae NW Hub and Manchester Beacon for Public Engagement plus collaboration with other Vitae colleagues, regional HEIs and the National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement (NCCPE).
The suite included:
Engaging Researcher event (6 July, Manchester)
- A collaboration between Vitae NW Hub, Manchester Beacon, University of Manchester, Manchester Metropolitan University and University of Salford
- Attended by over 60 NW researchers with a further 50 held on a waiting list
- Post event resources including video, audio interviews with the speakers and handouts can be freely accessed at www.vitae.ac.uk/engagingresearcher
- A full event report can be found here
- Participants stated that actions they will take as a result of attending this event included:
- "I have signed up to give a Café Scientifique talk in August and am thinking about a community art project that relates to my research."
- "Will not hesitate to apply for PE awards and will engage in even more PE than I do now."
- [I will] "involve the community in my research."
Early career researcher awards 2010
- Five projects were successful that created opportunities for early career researchers to work in partnership with experienced public engagement practitioners on how to communicate their research in creative and inspirational ways. More details can be found here
- Award winners showcased their experience at the Manchester Beacon Summit on 10 November 2010 (more details here)
- Authors: Suzanne Spicer (Manchester Beacon) and Sophie Duncan (NCCPE)
- Produced by Vitae
- 15,000 copies disseminated across the UK
- An online discussion space for researchers and staff supporting researcher development that have an interest in public engagement
Next steps
A 1 day experiential training programme in public engagement skills was developed and piloted in December 2010. The next phase of this project is to further pilot these resources and produce the final training package which will be available to download from the Vitae website. Vitae will then host ‘train the trainer' events for staff supporting researcher development to enable embedding of these activities into institutional training practice.