I meet researchers who think this every week or so, though I would
admit they are largely in the biomedical sciences, with the exception
of Zooniverse projects, as David says.

Three more recent publications which have case studies/ examples of this

1) The engaging researcher
http://www.vitae.ac.uk/researchers/169081/Researcher-booklets.html
2) What's in it for me? The benefits of public engagement for
researchers: http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/cmsweb/downloads/rcuk/scisoc/RCUKBenefitsofPE.pdf
3) Scientists on Public Engagement: from Communication to
Deliberation, final report -
http://www2.lse.ac.uk/BIOS/research/scope/pdf/scope_final_report.pdf

Ask around researchers that have done any developed and thoughtful
engagement and I'm sure you'll find some. It's not rare.

I'm a sociologist, so would fit in to your 'works directly with
people' category. What I can say which may be appropriate to all
researchers is that public communication work means I'm more visible
to other scholars.This can have disadvantages, as we all know - people
think you are wasting time in the media rather than doing proper work,
etc etc - but it does have a lot of advantages too. I've been asked to
speak at conferences people probably wouldn't have thought about me
for. Moreover, I've had contact with researchers who are looking at
similar issues but in slightly different fields. I wouldn't have met
them otherwise but now whole new opportunities for interdisciplinary
work (and funding...) has opened up. (this is just one thread of the
'scientists are public too' issue).

I'd also say that it makes me more articulate about my research.
Public communication is hard work - as with teaching, it's a real test
to check you know your stuff well, and the context it sits within. I
think that as a consequence of talking about my work with non-experts
I know it better and am personally more imaginative about research
ideas. It also shows me that people are interested and find it useful,
which helps when I'm feeling a bit down about it! So, this isn't the
public providing ideas to improve my research, but rather interactions
with them making me make myself a better researcher. I suspect this is
very common.


Alice

On 11 December 2010 10:12, David Waldock <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Just off the top of my head, Galaxy Zoo?
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On 11 Dec 2010, at 09:56, Stephan Matthiesen <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>> Hello David,
>>
>> Am 11.12.2010 08:41, schrieb David Waldock:
>>> There's a series of case studies within the context of health
>>> research available from
>>> http://www.invo.org.uk/pdfs/Involve_Exploring_Impactfinal28.10.09.pdf
>>> which I think meet that criteria.
>>
>> Thank you, that is interesting and useful. It would be great to get more examples from other fields too.
>>
>> These case studies are all medical and mostly fit the general pattern "some medical problem is being investigated, and people affected by it influenced research in a way that the results were more meaningful for their personal situation".
>>
>> While this is certainly positive, it is also a very special case in science. The kinds of medical research described here have, by their very nature, a clear and immediate direct impact on clearly defined groups. Also, medicine generally works directly with people, so it isn't clear in all these case studies how much of it is a specific science engagement activity, and how much is (should be) just part of a doctor's job anyway: talking to their patients.
>>
>> A similar situation would be in engineering, where the design of some product - a new mobile phone, for example - is influenced by focus groups of users etc. That's quite standard, but would that count as public engagement? I would assume that most of us are thinking of something different when we think of public engagement.
>>
>> It would be interesting to have case studies from other fields, where there isn't such a direct link between population group and research, for example particle physics, astronomy or mathematics. Any examples where involvement of the public has shaped research projects in astronomy?
>>
>> In biological research, I know a number of cases where ecological research projects rely on local knowledge in the population of some area to find interesting field sites and get ideas for particular ecological connections within that area.
>>
>> Cheers
>> Stephan
>>
>> --
>> Stephan Matthiesen
>> http://www.stephan-matthiesen.de
>> Neu auf www.science-texts.de: Abgegrast - Muster 12/2010
>>
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-- 

--
Alice R Bell

http://alicerosebell.wordpress.com/
http://slippedstitch.blogspot.com

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