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If we are outing ourselves, I should add that EPSRC's move mean that I will be out of one of my various jobs. Unpaid, that is. Like Bob, I also get to pick over grant applications. I am on EPSRC the peer review college as a reviewer of applications for PEST grants. I chip in only to say that my experience matches Bob's. Some well meaning but poorly thought out proposals cross my desk. I also see some neat ideas that would never pass muster as a part of a standard grant application. These proposals often bring in people outside the usual circles, people from the PEST community, for example. The new regime is not likely to include these players. This is why it is important for people beyond the usual suspects to chip in on the consultation. If you have ever been a part of one of these groups, let them know how important it was - if, of course, it was important - to be a part of the party. MK -----Original Message----- From: psci-com: on public engagement with science [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Bob Ward Sent: 11 August 2010 20:24 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [PSCI-COM] EPSRC ends public engagement scheme I think Mike has hit the nail on the head. I have reviewed a few "knowledge exchange" parts of NERC grant applications. On the whole they were fairly poor. Unsurprisingly, academic researchers, who have spent all of their working lives inside higher education institutions, find it very difficult to formulate plans on their own for engaging outside audiences with their work. In the overwhelming majority of cases that I reviewed, knowledge exchange meant posting information on a website, with little thought of what the desired outcome was intended to be, nor any notion of how to evaluate success. It all smacked of a token add-on drawn up quickly on the back of an envelope after the deeper deliberations over the research proposal. Given that universities are going to be under even greater pressure to create and demonstrate the social and economic impacts of research, the funding councils and research councils should be investing in providing professional guidance and assistance to researchers to help them maximise the impact of their work beyond their immediate peer group. In most cases, this fundamentally depends on effective two-way communication with different audiences. The trouble is that the funding councils and the research councils themselves are not exactly paragons of best practice themselves - how many of them can demonstrate that their own communications and outreach activities have any significant economic or social impact? If there is anybody from the funding councils and research councils reading this thread on psci-com, I hope they recognise the real peril that universities now face if they do not do a better job of generating and demonstrating the impact of their research. At present, university research looks like being one of the biggest losers in the impending round of savage public sector budget cuts. Higher education institutions should be investing more, not less, in professional communciation and outreach to prove that they are maximising the impact of the public money that is spent on research. Bob Ward Policy and Communications Director Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment London School of Economics and Political Science Houghton Street London WC2A 2AE http://www.lse.ac.uk/grantham <https://exchange.lse.ac.uk/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.lse.ac.uk/g rantham> Tel. +44 (0) 20 7106 1236 Mob. +44 (0) 7811 320346 ________________________________ From: psci-com: on public engagement with science on behalf of Michael Kenward Sent: Wed 11/08/2010 19:46 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [PSCI-COM] EPSRC ends public engagement scheme So, she rang the guy responsible for the thing and he muttered placatory noises. Anyone familiar with the innermost workings of the Research Councils will know how much attention to pay to this. The key bit seems to be that "the plan is to integrate public engagement activities within other parts of the council's business". That is a pretty good way of allowing the activity to get swamped. Maybe EPSRC thinks that the point has got through to all researchers and that it can safely leave them to get on with it without any outside assistance. MK -----Original Message----- From: psci-com: on public engagement with science [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of alice bell Sent: 11 August 2010 17:13 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [PSCI-COM] EPSRC ends public engagement scheme Anna Lewcock's take on this: http://prospect.rsc.org/blogs/cw/?p=4133 Alice ------ On 11 August 2010 15:41, Chris Stokes <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > Formal pressure on researchers to do public engagement is already well ensconced in the REF. The 'Draft "common menu" of impact indicators' included with the guidance on submissions for the REF impact pilot exercise is a table listing discrete 'types of impact' and, for each type, 'possible indicators'. One of the types HEFCE have defined is 'Cultural enrichment, including improved public engagement with science and research'. And the possible indicators it lists for this type are: > > - Increased levels of public engagement with science and research (for example, as measured through surveys) > - Changes to public attitudes to science (for example, as measured through surveys) > - Enriched appreciation of heritage or culture (for example, as measured through surveys) > - Audience/participation levels at public dissemination or engagement activities (exhibitions, broadcasts and so on) > - Positive reviews or participant feedback on public dissemination or engagement activities > > David Willetts has, of course, told HEFCE to take another year to come up with an impact-evaluation that's robust and postponed the REF by a year as a consequence. Some of those who've opposed the impact part of the REF are cheered by this. I'm not holding my breath for a volte-face from HEFCE on impact, though. Still, I can't see you average manufacturing engineer building public engagement of the kinds mentioned above into his/her next big research proposal without some resort to help from outside his/her department. If I were a PE specialist, I'd be beginning to think of ways to insinuate myself in the right quarters. > > Chris > > ________________________________ > > From: psci-com: on public engagement with science [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Francis Sedgemore > Sent: 11 August 2010 16:04 > To: [log in to unmask] > Subject: Re: [PSCI-COM] EPSRC ends public engagement scheme > > > -- Alice R Bell http://doctoralicebell.blogspot.com <http://doctoralicebell.blogspot.com/> ********************************************************************** 1. To suspend yourself from the list, whilst on leave, for example, send an email to mailto:[log in to unmask] with the following message: set psci-com nomail -- [include hyphens] 2. 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