Rules of engagement: impact and the public

Published on May 26th, 2011

Engaging the general public in academic research promises to be a central theme of how universities look to deliver impact as part of the REF assessment.

Clearly public engagement affords benefits to academia far beyond the confines of the impact agenda and it is well worth browsing this live (not anymore, it was last week) chat on research communication hosted by the Guardian Higher Education Network. It features the creative thoughts of an expert panel including communicators from Vitae, the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and one of the UCL-based founders of academic stand-up comedy venture Bright Club.

Back to the Developing and Assessing Impact for the REF event at Bournemouth University though and a key, and apparently vexing, question that emanated from a lively Q&A: how do we prove the effectiveness of public engagement?

The catalyst for the debate was the thoughts of Professor Jim Griffiths, Head of the School of Geography, Earth, Ocean and Environmental Sciences at the University of Plymouth. Griffiths provided feedback on his experiences of submitting impact case studies to the HEFCE impact pilot panel, which included a case study titled Communicating Earth Science.

It centred on media engagement by the university’s Professor Iain Stewart, who reached millions of BBC viewers through his BAFTA-nominated series How Earth Made Us. The case study struggled in the impact pilot assessment despite Griffiths’ assertion, vocally supported by some audience members, that this was an example of “somebody speaking loudly to society”.

The subsequent discussion gave panel members an opportunity to elaborate on the kind of evidence the panels were seeking in order for public engagement to reach a 4* impact rating.

Chris Taylor, Deputy REF Manager for HEFCE, underscored the importance of public engagement but that it needed to have an end result.

He said: “In a climate of funding pressure, having stories about what HE is doing should be played out in public. It is an opportunity to shout about what HEIs are doing for the benefit of society.

“Examples of public engagement are all relevant and important but you need to ask: what difference has it made?”

Professor James Goodwin, Head of Research at Age UK, said: “Public engagement is crucial to achieving impact but it is an activity which, by itself, is not impact. It is easy to confuse the process with the outcomes.”

Some form of feedback mechanism for public engagement is crucial, argued Dr Mari Williams, Deputy Director of the Corporate Policy & Strategy Group for the Biotechnology and Biosciences Research Council.

She said: “It’s not just about numbers of visitors to exhibitions. You have to ask in what way going to an exhibition or watching a TV programme has changed the way people think about a piece of research?”

In agreement, Roy Harrison, Professor of Environmental Health at the University of Birmingham, said communications with the public is very important but there needs to be a clear link between engagement and the specific research.

More creativity is in order, suggested Dr Kathryn Monk, Science Strategy Manager at Environment Agency Wales.

She said: “It is not just about holding exhibitions but also about providing details of reviews and follow-up visits through the use of visitor centres, feedback forms and monitoring newsletter sign-ups. You could also run campaigns – by collaborating with companies for example.

“These kinds of activities will generate a whole new research field: how do you follow up public engagement? Are people changing their behaviour and their thought processes?”

Several of the panel members urged academics to look through some of the successful case studies featured in HEFCE’s impact pilot exercise for English Language and Literature to find solid examples of demonstrating impact through public engagement.

Tags: bournemouth, hefce, impact, public engagement, research