The 20th-24th July saw the UK’s first PEP week, highlighting the role that Public Engagement Professionals play in facilitating engaged and participatory research across the Higher Education sector and beyond.
Earlier this year, a consortium of Public Engagement Professionals at the Universities of Bath, Bristol, Exeter, Leeds and Plymouth, Imperial College London, and King’s College London commissioned a report by consultant Dr Dominic Galliano, exploring the value of PEPs in managing Participatory Research Funding. This work was supported by Research England, through the King’s College London Participatory Research Fund allocation, and the National Co-Ordinating Centre for Public Engagement (NCCPE).
Following on from this work, a network of PEPs launched the UK’s first PEP week, promoting the findings of this report, and the different approaches PEPs can implement to facilitate public engagement in their institutions.
Colleagues at the University of Bath shared insights into the Community Matters project, which encouraged collaborative research between academics and community partners. Liverpool John Moores University highlighted their Public Engagement Action Plan, and recent receipt of an NCCPE Bronze Watermark, while Bath Spa University showcased their Emergent Value project, to understand people’s response to arts experiences.
At the University of Exeter, we wanted to use this opportunity to highlight the support available for those looking to take their next steps in public engagement, and the goal of our team to empower our research colleagues to collaborate with confidence. We talked about the ambitions of out Engaged and Participatory Research Fund, ongoing training opportunities, and the role of festivals and research fairs in helping engaged researchers forge connections with likeminded colleagues.
There is a huge amount of work that goes into participatory research, both outwardly, and behind the scenes: the emotional labour for researchers and community partners, the identification of shared research priorities, and the navigation of different internal processes, to name a few. PEPs help to mitigate against these challenges, and support researchers and community partners to generate meaningful and impactful research. The report from Dr Galliano explores the six different approaches PEPs identified as being crucial to their work: the institutional strategist, the relationship builder and networker, the innovator and change agent, the training and capacity builder, the compliance and systems officer, and the embedded outsider. Through adapting and blending these approaches in response to colleagues’ needs and institutional demand, PEPs can better support participatory research, and encourage a research ecosystem that thrives on coproduction and collaboration.
For more information about the report and the work of PEPs, find it on our website: Public Engagement Professionals | Public Engagement | University of Exeter.
Photography credit – Theo Moye