ASE Outreach Policy
UCL believes in working with community groups and other stakeholders, to extend the public and
social benefits of research and learning. This objective has gained impetus from the increased
emphasis given to measures of impact now employed by funding agencies and public bodies.
This provides an enormously supportive environment for the outreach activities of ASE, and gives us
access to considerable institutional support.
ASE has a proven track record of designing and delivering outreach programmes, covering a wide
range of activities for a variety of audiences. This includes working to specifications set by County
Councils, District Councils and consultants as well as our own organisational aim to engage with the
local communities in the areas in which we work.
As part of fieldwork briefs, we have implemented outreach programmes on many projects. These
have entailed the design and implementation of the outreach from liaison with the local press and
preparation of adverts and press releases, and production of leaflets, posters and flyers to promote
activities, through to the delivery of on-site activities and post-fieldwork talks and displays.
The range of outreach activities we undertake on a regular basis include talks to local societies and
at local and regional conferences about our recent projects and research, and visits to local schools
to introduce children to the work of archaeologists. on-site school visits and public open days with
site tours and finds and environmental specialists showing artefacts, children’s activities as part of
family open days, displays at community open days to promote the results of local fieldwork,
community excavation with a local school, volunteers from local societies working under supervision
on-site and off-site.
ASE will, therefore:
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Pro-actively identify opportunities to engage with diverse audiences for our work
Build partnerships with other interested parties, especially those working within local
communities.
Engage in a suitable level of public and stakeholder consultation to ensure that our outreach
activities are appropriately targeted
Ensure that public interests and welfare are in no way compromised by activities arranged as
a consequence of this outreach policy. This entails making sure that ethical, legal and safety
issues are paramount in our planning of public engagement.
Ensure that any such activities are compatible with our role and do not conflict with the
reasonable needs and legal responsibilities of our business clients, affected property-owners
and relevant public authorities
Use different media and vehicles for public engagement in order to reach new and different
audiences
Monitor the success of our activities and generate data for use in future UCL measurements
of the public impact of our archaeological projects
(revised draft of April 2014)