Up next: Engaging Researcher workshop

This Tuesday, I am going to a day-long researcher engagement workshop. It's free, and run by the Vitae organisation, which is committed to further professional/personal development for UK researchers. Their description of the workshop is as follows:

"Keen to engage the public with your research but not sure where to begin?

An engaging researcher is just like any other researcher - with one important difference.  Engaging researchers go out of their way to involve the public with their research. They open up opportunities for others to get involved, provide new perspectives on the value of their work, and stimulate people to be curious about the world of research - and why it matters.

This one day highly interactive workshop has been designed for researchers who are new to, or have some experience, with public engagement.

During the workshop, participants will:

• Explore how public engagement can benefit you, your research, research funders and the public with whom you engage
• Discover the huge range of activities you can use to engage the public with your research
• Investigate the needs of different publics, explore potential engagement barriers, and identify solutions for overcoming them
• Explore methods for evaluating the impact and success of public engagement activities.
• Put your knowledge and skills into action to design and plan a public engagement activity.
• Examine which public engagement activities complement your current skills and what will help you develop your skills further
• Learn how to take the next steps in finding public engagement contacts and opportunities

Collaborate with peers from a range of disciplines."


I have been looking forward to this all summer (really!) because I am very keen on helping to share my current project, ECHOES, with a wider audience. In theory, it is easier than ever before for those doing research to connect directly to the public and to other researchers. Unfortunately, the proliferation of media types means that it is daunting to choose your target audience and a channel by which to reach them, even if you have already 'packaged' what you want to say. Hopefully this workshop will make it all seem less scary, and give me some good ideas. Will report back after Tuesday.