What resources could help support your public engagement work?

29 July 2010

By Emma Gillaspy

Fourth in our series of six questions is:

What resources could help support your public engagement work?

• Time on an already over 100% workload allocation
• Organised networks, groups, events for more opportunities
• Recognition of it's importance vs REF/RAE, teaching etc.
• Funding opportunities; many of them are lead by specific funding councils or professional bodies so you aren't always eligible.
• Knowledge – who is doing what?
• Support from senior management and recognition (possibly in promotion criteria)
• Careers information eg. case stories, alumni involvement, stories, spectrum of possibilities arising from science-related subjects
• Contacts and opportunities
• Can there be such a thing as outreach “fellows” to help co-ordinate and give momentum
• More co-ordinated / structured approaches
• Not so much 'training' but opportunity to put your PE into practice and get feedback.
• Meeting others who are doing this too and learning from them.
• Knowing where to start.

This is one to feed back to the funders and individual institutions so if you have any thoughts, we would really like to hear them.