Research Councils UK (RCUK) has today (12 February 2013) released a podcast which discusses the importance of engaging young people in science and research, following the launch of its School-University Partnerships Initiative (SUPI).
The initiative, which exceeds £3.5 million in total, is funding 12 projects over the next three years, each of which involves a variety of activities to develop longer-term engagement between universities and schools.
One of the projects is led by Professor Lord Robert Winston of Imperial College London to expand its ‘Reaching Further’ programme. Professor Lord Winston talks about the important role universities must play in giving young people the opportunity to get excited about science and research.
He says: “School kids in general are turned on by doing practical work, but at least a third of schools in the state sector in Britain don’t have laboratories. Universities have a special place for schools – we have the equipment, space, expertise, and students who can act as role models for school pupils – so, to my mind, universities need to be opened up more. It is a way of demonstrating that what you might do in class is practically what you might do in work if you decide to study further at university.”
The initiative builds on the Research Councils’ work to embed public engagement in the higher education sector and aims to create structured and strategic mechanisms for universities and local schools. It will support researchers’ direct engagement with the students and the teachers to bring cutting edge research into the classroom and enhance and enrich the curriculum.
Dr Kerry Leslie, Head of Public Engagement with Research at RCUK, says: “One of the issues is that school-university interactions can be quite ad-hoc, so we wanted to create something that had a more strategic and sustained partnership between the university and the schools. This would mean that the breadth and quality of the interactions would increase and they would cover all of the research subject areas.”
It is hoped that the initiative will help improve the supply of skilled people to the research base and encourage more to act as informed citizens as they will value and have confidence in the research process.
Professor Lord Winston adds: “In a democracy, we have a responsibility to ensure that we do this for society. The research I do in my laboratory is paid for by the Research Councils or other funders, so it is actually everybody’s research. It is therefore important that we have a society that understands that science and research is really important to them.”
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Notes to editors
Listen to the podcast here
Read the blog post about SUPI by Dr Kerry Leslie.
The School-University Partnership Initiative builds on the success of the Beacons for Public Engagement and Public Engagement with Research Catalysts and RCUK’s commitment to public engagement as set out in the Concordat for Engaging the Public with Research.
Research Councils UK (RCUK) is the strategic partnership of the UK's seven Research Councils who annually invest around £3 billion in research. We support excellent research, as judged by peer review, that has an impact on the growth, prosperity and wellbeing of the UK. To maintain the UK’s global research position we offer a diverse range of funding opportunities, foster international collaborations and provide access to the best facilities and infrastructure around the world. We also support the training and career development of researchers and work with them to inspire young people and engage the wider public with research. To maximise the impact of research on economic growth and societal wellbeing we work in partnership with other research funders including the Technology Strategy Board, the UK Higher Education funding bodies, business, government, and charitable organisations. www.rcuk.ac.uk.
The seven UK Research Councils are:
- Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC);
- Biotechnology & Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC);
- Economic & Social Research Council (ESRC);
- Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC);
- Medical Research Council (MRC);
- Natural Environment Research Council (NERC);
- Science & Technology Facilities Council (STFC).