Factors affecting public engagement by researchers

The objective of this research (2015-6) - funded by a consortium of UK public funders of research, led by the Wellcome Trust - was to provide independent insight and evidence to support future UK planning and strategy for supporting researchers to engage with the public. In particular, the project focused on the attitudes and experiences of researchers themselves with respect to public engagement.

My headline conclusions from the research - as featured in the Executive Summary - were:

The research “suggests that the embedding of public engagement in institutional cultures is best understood as a ‘work in progress’. There are positive indications in the project outputs that public engagement is increasingly part of the landscape of higher education and research institutions, and that participation in and value placed on public engagement has increased in recent years. At the same time, the research suggests that researchers and institutions remain uncertain about public engagement, within the context of a profession that is driven by research (and teaching). The project suggests that public engagement is more firmly embedded in the context of the arts, humanities and social sciences than it is among researchers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Institutional change of this kind is known to be highly challenging and higher education institutions are known to be relatively slow to change. Within this context, the project indicates that, while current strategies have been helpful, longer-term effort – perhaps targeted in particular domains – is required.”

Reports
You can read the Full Report (TNS-BMRB/Burchell, 2015) here.
You can read the literature review (Burchell, 2015) here.

Paper
Burchell, K., Sheppard, C. and Chambers, J. (2017) A ‘work in progress’?: UK researchers and participation in public engagement, Research for All, 1(1): 198-224.


LSE Impact Blog
Burchell, K., Sheppard, C. and Chambers, J. (2018) A “work in progress”? Public engagement is now part of the UK research landscape but challenges remain, 21 February, 2018.