Hi Hillary,

 

Thanks for this. Of course you’re not being prissy. Have you seen this great blog post: “An imaginary open letter: to those who would ‘engage’ us…”?

http://realisedevelopment.net/2012/08/an-imaginary-open-letter-to-those-who-would-engage-us/

 

The aim of the site I’ve set up is to try to assess the benefits that researchers get out of doing public engagement. It’s my impression, and I might be wrong, that evaluation very often focuses on the ‘audience’ (i.e. Aunty Vera) and there is much less on how it affects the researchers – I wanted to try and catalogue some of these impacts. Needless to say, this in no way means that we shouldn’t be thinking hard about what’s in it for Aunty.

 

Regarding your point on ‘clarity of purpose’, it’s probably worth pointing out that the primary aim of some of the examples highlighted on the site might have been one-way science communication (albeit done in an engaging way) rather than the stakeholder/public dialogue.

 

All the best,

 

Patrick

 

Dr Patrick Middleton

BBSRC Head of Engagement

01793 413 368  |  07771 945 529

www.bbsrc.ac.uk  |  [log in to unmask]  |  @Patrick_Midd

 

 

 

From: psci-com: on public engagement with science [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Sutcliffe Hilary
Sent: 30 August 2012 13:16
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [PSCI-COM] Public engagement - why bother?

 

Hello Patrick, 

 

At the risk of sounding prissy I have often been disappointed in this debate because it focuses on 'what's in it for me'.  I would like to see much more about what's in it for my Aunty Vera et al to schlep to a church hall to talk about nanotechnology or come to a museum or engage with someone doing some research.  This is people's valuable time we are asking them to spend to help us out and it seems poor that we don't really have much of an idea why we are doing it in the first place, let alone articulate that to them at the point of their engagement.  Stakeholders are being asked to 'engage' across lots of areas - planning policy, hospital services, education etc etc and I think they are very soon going to be fed up and not want to unless there is a clear purpose and benefit they can identify with.

 

It also concerns me, this is tax payers money we are using here, I would have expected much more clarity about the purpose behind such engagements, both for the participants and those who are engaging.  I was surprised how accidental some of the benefits appeared to participants and about the lack of evaluation of effectiveness came afterwards.

 

In our recent Building Confidence in Innovative Tech report  (for business) we adapted the Stakeholder Engagement Triangle (listen, communicate, co-create) to include Cogitate because it is the internal reflection needed to development of clarity of purpose, evaluation of effectiveness and internalisation of the messages received which is the most valuable and makes engagement really work.  We felt this was missing in the definition and think perhaps it would be equally valuable to universities.

 

Best regards

Hilary

 

 

 

 

 

Hilary Sutcliffe

Director

MATTER

7 Adam Street

London WC2H 6AA

Tel: +44 (0)208 693 0053

Mob: 07799 625064

skype: hilary.sutcliffe

 

 



 

On 30 Aug 2012, at 12:38, "Patrick Middleton (BBSRC, SO)" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

 

Hi All,

 

Many thanks to those of you who contributed to this discussion. I’ve added about 25 bits of evidence/anecdote/comment on the value of public engagement to http://www.scoop.it/t/public-engagement-why-bother.

 

I’ve also very roughly tagged the posts, this is how they stack up:

 

Tag

#posts

Changing thinking

10

Developing skills

8

Impact: Funding

2

Impact: Policy

1

Impact: Research direction

2

Impact: Social

1

Increased profile

2

Personal value

4

Professional value

1

Theory etc

3

 

Obviously this is a far from scientific study of the field (particularly as I’ve been hunting for examples which affect research direction)! However, it seems that skills and new perspectives are the most frequently acknowledged benefits of doing public engagement.  

 

I’m hoping to keep building this list so if you come across any more examples please do let me know.

 

All the best,

 

Patrick

 

Dr Patrick Middleton

BBSRC Head of Engagement

01793 413 368  |  07771 945 529

 

 

From: psci-com: on public engagement with science [mailto:PSCI-[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Patrick Middleton (BBSRC, SO)
Sent: 23 August 2012 15:38
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [PSCI-COM] Public engagement - why bother?

 

Hi all,

 

Help please!

 

I’m trying to draw together examples, anecdotes and evidence of what researchers get out of doing public engagement. If you have any examples please let me know and I’ll post them on the growing list here: http://www.scoop.it/t/public-engagement-why-bother

 

You often hear people say things like, “public engagement can make think about your research differently” or “talking to people helps you reassess your research questions”. But what’s the evidence for this?

 

I’m interested in any benefits that researchers feel they get out of doing public engagement – better people skills, improved CV, more funding, improved confidence – but I’m most interested in examples where public engagement has actually effected what research gets done.

 

Do you know of any research in this area or have any anecdotes to share?

 

Thanks,

 

Patrick

 

Patrick Middleton

BBSRC Head of Engagement

01793 413 368  |  07771 945 529

 

 

 

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