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These case studies include engaging the public with research such as a pathway to impact. In addition to communicating research findings to the public, researchers should also consider two-way engagement - interaction and dialogue with the public to inform their research.
Dr Ceri Lewis: from the University of Exeter has used tweets, blogs and podcasts to disseminate her research and create impact. This has enabled end users of research, other researchers and even the public to provide feedback, comments and questions to influence her research. Communicating her work to a young audience through her work with schools has also developed her skills.
Professor Nick Tyler: from University College London researches how people interact with the environment which has led him to set up the Pedestrian Accessibility and Movement Environment Laboratory (PAMELA). To maximise the impact of his research he has engaged with users and the public which has led to a collaboration with Thameslink2000 train link in London which has had national impact for train design in the UK.
Professor Frank Sengpiel: from Cardiff University is inspired to tell people about neuroscience and as the lead for public engagement at Cardiff University’s new Neuroscience and Mental Health Research Institute (NMHRI) organises events such as public lectures. He hopes that explaining his research clearly will help the general public, and other potential users such as the research and clinical communities understand the relevance of his work.
Professor Robert Logie: is group leader at the University of Edinburgh’s Centre for Cognitive Ageing and Cognitive Epidemiology (CCACE). He has worked with the BBC on a cross-media science season to explore the fascinating world of memory, on radio, television and the web including an on-line memory test which has been completed by more than half a million people. Professor Logie believes that interaction with the public is vital as it helps to identify ways in which basic research can be applied to society.
Professor Rhodri Williams: from the University of Swansea changed the direction of his research from the rheology of industrial engineering fluids to rheology of blood coagulation through a chance meeting. As a result, Swansea is now seen as a world-leading centre in this field and him and his colleagues have two spin-out two companies, and are having a clinical impact in local hospitals. He now regularly engages with a wide variety of users including the general public, as the feedback he receives from them has been invaluable to his research.
Professor Dek Woolfson: Professor Dek Woolfson from the University of Bristol advises against writing the pathways to impact at the end of the grant proposal. He suggests populating it with headings and sub headings for each area where there is a potential impact. Professor Woolfson’s impact activities are very much focussed on building the research capacity of the next generation, helping to lay the foundations for better engineering of biology and engagement with the public. He believes that public engagement encourages an understanding of his science from different perspectives, which in turn has a positive impact on his own research.
Professor Nicky Gregson: Professor Nicky Gregson at Durham University never anticipated that research into waste and global recycling could produce such creative and innovative pathways to impact which has led to the making of two films, a photography exhibition and a school play. Professor Gregson was keen to explore a variety of pathways to impact and together with her team, the Geographical Association, as well as a ship breaking project team began working with a Sheffield school and took a group of children to ship breaking in progress. Unintentionally the children became part of a parallel research project based on the poignant and revealing interviews conducted by the school children with the veterans of the ship that was being salvaged.
Arctic scientist engages through tweets, blogs and podcasts
“I realise that speaking to school children might not be for everyone, but I would encourage everyone to give it a go at least once. I think many people would surprise themselves.” – Ceri Lewis, University of Exeter
Tweets, blogs and podcasts may not be methods that many scientists would use to communicate their work, but Dr Ceri Lewis has embraced these new tools and now uses them on a regular basis. Lewis, a marine biologist at the University of Exeter, regularly tweets about her daily life as a scientist. She also writes blog entries and records podcasts whenever she has anything particularly interesting to say, such as for example, when she goes on an expedition to the Arctic.
“The great thing about tweeting, blogging and podcasts is that they are free and don’t have to take up a lot of your time,” says Lewis.
Lewis has also found that these tools are not only about getting her message across, but equally importantly enable her to listen to feedback, comments and questions from the public as well as other researchers. She also uses twitter as an important information source. “All the top journals in my field have a twitter feed and so twitter is where I find out about the latest research,” says Lewis.
Lewis now has more than 400 followers and they include amateur biology enthusiasts, her university students, journalists and other marine biologists. She tweets several times per week, often about her day-to-day tasks such as hours staring down a microscope, or a successful day rock pooling. “I want to break down the image that some people have of scientists,” says Lewis. “We really are just normal people, doing normal jobs and by giving people an insight into my daily life, I hope I go some way to changing our image and perhaps inspire people to become scientists.”
She has teamed up with Digital Explorer, a company that has pioneered educational expeditions and provides inspirational lessons and resources direct from the world to the classroom. “My data is now being used in lesson plans and classroom experiments,” says Lewis. “We have had some great feedback from teachers because the children find the lessons fascinating.”
The lesson plans are designed for GCSE-level students and are free to download. Training weekends are held in Southampton so that teachers are able to implement the plans with confidence and also train other teachers how to use the lesson plans. Lewis also goes into schools to give talks about her work.
“It really is a great feeling when you are speaking to school children about your work and you see that your enthusiasm for your work has reached them,” says Lewis. “I realise that speaking to school children might not be for everyone, but I would encourage everyone to give it a go at least once. I think many people would surprise themselves.”
Lewis’ adventure into the world of public engagement started through her work with Catlin Arctic Survey, an organisation funded by the insurance company Catlin. “It was Catlin Arctic Survey that encouraged me to interact with schools and use modern tools such as twitter and now I really enjoy this side of my work,” says Lewis. “I will certainly use the skills I have learned and apply them to my future research.”
Institution:University of Exeter
Funding council:NERC and Catlin Arctic Survey
Links
Catlin Arctic Survey
Digital Explorer
Dr Lewis’s twitter feed
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