Parallel Sessions A: 11.15 – 12.15
A1: Creating an engagement-friendly University
Venue: Lecture 4
Presenters:
Paul Manners, Director, National Coordinating Council for Public Engagement
Dr Heather Rea, Beltane Public Engagement Network
Workshop Outline:
The workshop will explore the lessons learned during the Beacons for Public Engagement
project. What can universities do to ensure that public engagement thrives within their
research communities? This will be a very practical session, focused around a selfassessment matrix, which identifies nine key triggers for effective strategic support for
Public Engagement.
Topics Covered:
Clarify your purpose: the workshop will explore the importance of strong leadership and
strategic clarity
Infrastructure: it will examine the coordination that is needed to ensure that staff and
students are provided with the best possible support to develop high quality engagement
activity, including professional development and appropriate recognition and reward
Involving staff, students and the public: it will explore the importance of developing your
strategy and plans in a collaborative way
Workshop Outcomes:
 Delegates will be introduced to the ‘lessons learned’ from the Beacons for Public
Engagement project
 They will be encouraged to apply that learning to ‘assess’ how their own institution’s
currently support public engagement
 They will be asked to identify a small number of actions they can take to tackle ‘blocks’
or capitalise on opportunities in their own institution
 They will be pointed to a range of useful resources and support
Format:
The workshop will include a mix of short presentations from Paul and Heather with
interactive exercises where delegates are invited to review how their own universities are
currently supporting public engagement, and to identify areas where this support could be
enhanced.
A2: The nuts and bolts of evaluating public engagement
Venue: Seminar 6
Presenter:
Suzanne Spicer, Social Responsibility Manager, University of Manchester
Workshop Outline:
How do you know if your public engagement activity has been successful? How could you
improve your activity? Is there any evidence of impact? This interactive workshop will begin
to explore how to successfully evaluate your public engagement activities.
Topics Covered:
 Why evaluate your public engagement activities
 How to develop an evaluation plan
 How to ask the right questions
Workshop Outcomes:
 To develop an understanding of the value and importance of evaluating public
engagement
 To understand the process of successful evaluation and collecting evidence of impact
 To increase confidence in developing an evaluation plan and using new, alternative
approaches to evaluating public engagement
Format:
Interactive mix of information sharing, discussion and activities
A3: Building impact case studies
Venue: Seminar 4 & 5
Presenters:
Laura Bates, Research Policy Officer, University of St Andrews
Dr Richard Bates, Senior Lecturer, School of Geography and Geosciences, University of St
Andrews
Professor Will Fowler, Professor of Latin American Studies, School of Modern Languages,
University of St Andrews
Workshop Outline:
Laura Bates will present an overview of the impact case study element of REF2014, with
particular emphasis on the differences between public engagement (dissemination) and
impact. This will be followed by presentations and discussions with two case study authors,
Dr Richard Bates, Department of Earth Sciences, and Prof. Will Fowler, School of Modern
Languages, about their experiences of writing REF impact case studies.
Topics Covered:
REF Impact overview – what is impact? What is involved in progressing to impact from
public engagement? Embedding impact in your research planning. The drawbacks and value
of impact from an academic’s perspective. Tips on writing effective case studies.
Workshop Outcomes:
Enhanced understanding of what impact entails. Ideas for incorporating impact into the
research process on an individual basis. Impact case study writing pros and cons from both
the Science and Arts & Humanities perspectives.
Format:
Three short presentations and discussion
A4: Festivals as a public engagement activity for Arts and Sciences
Venue: Lecture 2
Presenters:
Dr Ruth Robinson, University of St Andrews (chair)
Dr Anuschka Miller, Scottish Association of Marine Sciences
Dr Ken Skeldon, University of Aberdeen
Dr Lucy Leiper, University of Aberdeen
Susan Morrison, Scottish Festival of History
Workshop Outline:
Festivals are a well-established and effective way to communicate research to communities
outside academia and to engage with them. This session will provide an opportunity to
explore a range of issues about the successful use of festivals for Arts and Science with
experienced practitioners from different fields.
Topics Covered:
 When are festivals right?
 Considerations in planning a festival
 What are the risks, costs and benefits?
Workshop Outcomes:
 To develop an understanding of the potential value of festivals as a public engagement
activity
 To appreciate what can be involved in mounting a festival
 To gain insight into how festivals can be effectively used to engage different publics and
communicate research in different disciplines
 To appreciate how festivals enable a wide range of methods to be used that can often
combine arts and science in an engaging way
Format:
This will be a chaired panel session, including group discussion and a q&a.
Parallel Sessions B:14.00 - 15.00
B1: Engaging with different publics
Venue: Lecture 4
Presenters:
Dr Jon Urch, Public Engagement and Outreach Coordinator, Revealing Research, University
of Dundee
Dr Helen-Louise Murphy, Public Engagement Assistant, Revealing Research, University of
Dundee
Workshop Outline:
When done well, engaging the public with research is a two way process that can enhance
research as well as the lives of the people involved. This can lead to some very effective
engagement projects that are targeted to specific audiences.
Listen to examples of ground breaking projects, discuss your ideas with experts and consider
what audiences you may wish to engage with your research.
B2: Festivals for Arts and Sciences showcase
Venue: Lecture 2
Presenters:
Dr Anuschka Miller, Scottish Association of Marine Sciences
Dr Ken Skeldon, University of Aberdeen
Dr Lucy Leiper, University of Aberdeen
Susan Morrison, Scottish Festival of History
Workshop outline
Each contributor will be presenting case study examples of festivals with which they have
been involved.
Dr Ken Skeldon and Dr Lucy Leiper will present two Festivals recently hosted at the
University of Aberdeen: The British Science Festival (2012) and the University’s new May
Festival (2013). Both of these were driven and developed in close partnership with their
research community. They will discuss their ‘Call for Ideas’ associated with the May Festival
and the subsequent embedded approach to skills, training, evaluation and delivery to
maximise the impact of the Festival for researchers and audiences.
Dr Anuschka Miller will give an overview of the Festival of the Sea and will then focus on
how a festival can be used to engage rural audiences.
Susan Morrison will be discussing the Scottish Festival of History
Topics Covered:
 Festival planning
 Generic skills development,
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Pathways to impact
Evaluation
Researcher excellence framework
The importance of collaborations
Integrating science into topics of local interest
Picking the right locations and times
Workshop Outcomes:
 Through the case studies, an appreciation of festival planning that maximises impact for
researchers and the research environment
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An understanding of the needs of rural audiences which should enhance their
engagement with these audiences in any kind of science communication.
Format:
Case study presentations, followed by discussion.
B3: pathways to impact…walk the walk
Venue: Seminar 6
Presenters:
Dr Ewan D Chirnside, Director, Knowledge Transfer Centre, University of St Andrews
Workshop Outline:
A grant application pathways to impact statement provides an explicit commitment that you
will work to support outcomes and impact that meet your research sponsors objectives,
often beyond purely academic research outputs (posters, papers, monographs etc.). This
workshop aims to provide practical advice and thought-provoking dialogue so that you
might consider how you engage directly in delivering these non-academic outcomes and
potentially wider impact from your research project, and “walk the walk” rather than just
“talk the talk” on this topic.
Topics Covered:
The workshop will help you to consider:
 What is driving the impact agenda, and what support there is for it; and
 What you might offer or promise a potential sponsor on a funding application.
And how to “walk the walk”:
 Show that you are engaged in delivering outcomes and potentially impact whilst funded;
and
 Consider what the range of outcomes & impacts from your work might be.
Workshop Outcomes:
Participants will gain a better appreciation of the types of activities they could engage in to
promote outcomes and in the longer term impact from their own research, and to
appreciate that whilst not every individual project might offer these opportunities
researchers need to be willing to engage in University, School and individual efforts to show
that their work has the potential to provide social, public and economic benefit and improve
understanding and the quality of life.
Format:
Presentation, interactive group work & participant discussion.
B4: All aboard the GeoBus: supporting secondary schools and engaging pupils
in research
Venue: Seminar 4 & 5
Presenters:
Dr Ruth Robinson, Snr Lecturer in Earth Sciences, University of St Andrews
Dr David Macfarlane, Research Fellow, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of St
Andrews
Workshop Outline:
Why develop a mobile outreach project that visits schools every week? Why focus on
hands-on science training and activities? What is unique about such a project? How is it
funded? How does it benefit the University’s research and impact strategy? What are the
outcomes and who benefits? These topics will be covered in a presentation followed by a
practical demonstration of a GeoBus workshop as delivered in a secondary school
classroom.
Topics Covered:
Development of the mobile outreach project to secondary schools; main aims & objectives
of the project; summary of funding history and sources; geographic and demographic
impact across Scotland; cross-disciplinary activities between Earth sciences and Physics;
supporting Curriculum for Excellence science curriculum; conversion of research outcomes
into teaching activities.
Workshop Outcomes:
Understanding why this outreach project is successful; steps to developing a sustainable
funding strategy; lessons learnt over the first 12 months; using undergraduate volunteers
and their role; how to take advantage of GeoBus “logistics” and develop new crossdisciplinary teaching resources.
Format:
A presentation of 20 minutes duration followed by participation in the Monitoring
Volcanoes GeoBus workshop that is regularly delivered in schools and which combines Earth
science and Physics concepts, learning outcomes and technology.
Parallel sessions C: 15.30 – 16.30
C1: The nuts and bolts of evaluating public engagement
Venue: Seminar 4 & 5
Presenter:
Suzanne Spicer, Social Responsibility Manager, University of Manchester
Workshop Outline:
How do you know if your public engagement activity has been successful? How could you
improve your activity? Is there any evidence of impact? This interactive workshop will begin
to explore how to successfully evaluate your public engagement activities.
Topics Covered:
 Why evaluate your public engagement activities
 How to develop an evaluation plan
 How to ask the right questions
Workshop Outcomes:
 To develop an understanding of the value and importance of evaluating public
engagement
 To understand the process of successful evaluation and collecting evidence of impact
 To increase confidence in developing an evaluation plan and using new, alternative
approaches to evaluating public engagement
Format:
Interactive mix of information sharing, discussion and activities
C2: Social media and public engagement
Venue: Seminar 6
Presenter:
Erinma Ochu, Wellcome Trust Engagement Fellow in Life Sciences, University of Manchester
Workshop Outline:
Learn simple ways to engage the public through social media whilst maximising social
impact. This will include an opportunity to learn from one another and from case studies,
including Turing’s Sunflowers, which had a global reach of 62.8M people and crowdsourced
the largest dataset exploring number patterns in sunflower.
Topics Covered:
Storytelling; Communications; Crowdsourcing content; Audiences; Social media channels;
online PE; tracking digital impact
Workshop Outcomes:
Participants will come away with new insights and tips
Format:
Group work & case study presentation (video and sound projection required if available)
plus wireless access.
C3: Public engagement through arts/science collaborations
Venue: Lecture 4
Presenters:
James Howie, ASCUS Arts Science Collaborative
Hamer Dodds, Arts and Science communicator
Workshop Outline:
This workshop is aimed at addressing the potential issues with the accessibility and
readability of science writing. Does a newly published paper actually communicate to an
audience what is intended by the author? Is it actually read by the audience? Are there
others ways to engage with scientific papers? Can poetry help an audience unfamiliar with
the jargon of a specialised subject break it down into something more digestible?
Following an introduction to ASCUS and the field of art science collaboration in relation to
public engagement and research communication, the team at ASCUS will lead participants
through a (fun) way to engage with a published scientific paper. The workshop will look at a
scientific paper that has been broken up, and jumbled around into a grid system that will
allow groups to sample to words and sentences in the fashion of a scientific sampling
technique. When groups have gathered their samples, they are encouraged to be creative,
and use and arrange the words in any way they decide. The end product is a poem. This
technique is somewhat reminiscent to found poetry and perhaps Dadism.
At the end of the workshop, participants will talk through each creation, and assess whether
the poetry written captures the essence and idea of the published paper.
Topics Covered:
Art, science, scientific papers, readability, creativity, poetry.
Workshop Outcomes:
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To introduce ASCUS and the field of art science collaboration in relation to public
engagement and research communication.
To stimulate ideas about the nature of a science paper and its audience.
To engage a wider audience with the contents of scientific papers.
To produce poetry.
To provide a methodology for scientists to engage in a hands way in an art-led project
Format:
Group practical, discursive, transdiscipinary activity using sampling techniques and an
original scientific paper.
C4: Bright Club: communicating research with humour
Venue: Lecture 2
Presenters:
Susan Morrison, Bright club trainer
Dr Jon Urch, Public Engagement and Outreach Coordinator, Revealing Research, University
of Dundee
Dr Kate Cross, Research Fellow, University of St Andrews
Workshop Outline
Bright Club is what happens when the worlds of comedy and research collide.
“I’ve found Bright Club to be great fun and a real confidence builder. It’s easy to get very bogged
down in minute detail when doing research, so presenting something short and snappy is a great way
of reminding myself what it’s really all about and why I find it so exciting. “ …so says Kate Cross.
During this workshop, participants will learn about what Bright club is, how it works and why it is a
great way for researchers to learn about communicating their research.
With the help of a Bright Club organiser, performer and trainer, participants during this workshop
will get a taste of how Bright Club training works to help researchers build their confidence in public
speaking and as effective communicators.
It will be a lively, fun and participative session