{"id":1745,"date":"2026-08-17T08:21:57","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T08:21:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/per\/?p=1745"},"modified":"2026-08-17T08:21:59","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T08:21:59","slug":"what-value-do-peps-bring-the-uks-first-public-engagement-professionals-peps-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/per\/2026\/08\/17\/what-value-do-peps-bring-the-uks-first-public-engagement-professionals-peps-week\/","title":{"rendered":"What Value Do PEPs Bring? The UK\u2019s First Public Engagement Professionals (PEPs) Week"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>The 20<\/strong><strong><sup>th<\/sup><\/strong><strong>-24<\/strong><strong><sup>th<\/sup><\/strong><strong>&nbsp;July saw the UK\u2019s first PEP week,&nbsp;highlighting the role that Public Engagement Professionals play in facilitating engaged and participatory research across the Higher Education sector and beyond.<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Earlier this year, a consortium of Public Engagement Professionals at the Universities of Bath, Bristol, Exeter, Leeds and Plymouth, Imperial College London, and King\u2019s College London commissioned a report&nbsp;by consultant Dr Dominic Galliano, exploring the value&nbsp;of PEPs&nbsp;in managing Participatory Research Funding.&nbsp;This work was supported by Research England, through the King\u2019s College London Participatory Research Fund allocation, and the National Co-Ordinating Centre for Public Engagement (NCCPE).&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Following on from this work,&nbsp;a network of PEPs launched the UK\u2019s first PEP week, promoting the findings of this report, and the different approaches PEPs can implement to&nbsp;facilitate&nbsp;public engagement in their institutions.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Colleagues at the University of Bath shared insights&nbsp;into the Community Matters project, which&nbsp;encouraged collaborative research between academics and community partners.&nbsp;Liverpool John Moores University highlighted their Public Engagement Action Plan, and recent receipt of an NCCPE Bronze Watermark, while Bath Spa University&nbsp;showcased&nbsp;their Emergent Value project, to understand people\u2019s response to arts experiences.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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&nbsp;research colleagues to collaborate with confidence. We talked about the ambitions of out Engaged and Participatory Research Fund,&nbsp;ongoing training opportunities, and the role of festivals and research fairs in helping engaged researchers forge connections with likeminded colleagues.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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&nbsp;help to mitigate against these challenges,&nbsp;and support researchers and community partners&nbsp;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\u2019 needs and institutional demand,&nbsp;PEPs can better support participatory&nbsp;research, and&nbsp;encourage a research ecosystem that thrives on coproduction and collaboration.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For more information about the report and the work of PEPs, find it on our website:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.exeter.ac.uk\/research\/publicengagement\/ourpublicengagementstrategy\/peps\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Public Engagement Professionals | Public Engagement | University of Exeter.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Photography credit &#8211; Theo Moye<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The 20th-24th\u00a0July saw the UK\u2019s first PEP week,\u00a0highlighting the role that Public Engagement Professionals play in facilitating engaged and participatory research across the Higher Education sector and beyond.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2305,"featured_media":1681,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What Value Do PEPs Bring? The UK\u2019s First Public Engagement Professionals (PEPs) Week - Public Engagement with Research (PER) at the University of Exeter<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/per\/2026\/08\/17\/what-value-do-peps-bring-the-uks-first-public-engagement-professionals-peps-week\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What Value Do PEPs Bring? The UK\u2019s First Public Engagement Professionals (PEPs) Week - Public Engagement with Research (PER) at the University of Exeter\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The 20th-24th\u00a0July saw the UK\u2019s first PEP week,\u00a0highlighting the role that Public Engagement Professionals play in facilitating engaged and participatory research across the Higher Education sector and beyond.\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/per\/2026\/08\/17\/what-value-do-peps-bring-the-uks-first-public-engagement-professionals-peps-week\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Public Engagement with Research (PER) at the University of Exeter\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-08-17T08:21:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-17T08:21:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/per\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/327\/2026\/08\/23529.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1350\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Catherine H\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Catherine H\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/per\/2026\/08\/17\/what-value-do-peps-bring-the-uks-first-public-engagement-professionals-peps-week\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/per\/2026\/08\/17\/what-value-do-peps-bring-the-uks-first-public-engagement-professionals-peps-week\/\",\"name\":\"What Value Do PEPs Bring? The UK\u2019s First Public Engagement Professionals (PEPs) Week - Public Engagement with Research (PER) at the University of Exeter\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/per\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/per\/2026\/08\/17\/what-value-do-peps-bring-the-uks-first-public-engagement-professionals-peps-week\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/per\/2026\/08\/17\/what-value-do-peps-bring-the-uks-first-public-engagement-professionals-peps-week\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/per\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/327\/2026\/08\/23529.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-17T08:21:57+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-08-17T08:21:59+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/per\/#\/schema\/person\/ea977a7e4e9049adf0cb92b1f039e570\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/per\/2026\/08\/17\/what-value-do-peps-bring-the-uks-first-public-engagement-professionals-peps-week\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/per\/2026\/08\/17\/what-value-do-peps-bring-the-uks-first-public-engagement-professionals-peps-week\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/per\/2026\/08\/17\/what-value-do-peps-bring-the-uks-first-public-engagement-professionals-peps-week\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/per\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/327\/2026\/08\/23529.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/per\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/327\/2026\/08\/23529.jpg\",\"width\":1350,\"height\":1080,\"caption\":\"Photography credit - Theo Moye\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/per\/2026\/08\/17\/what-value-do-peps-bring-the-uks-first-public-engagement-professionals-peps-week\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/per\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"What Value Do PEPs Bring? The UK\u2019s First Public Engagement Professionals (PEPs) Week\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/per\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/per\/\",\"name\":\"Public Engagement with Research (PER) at the University of Exeter\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/per\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/per\/#\/schema\/person\/ea977a7e4e9049adf0cb92b1f039e570\",\"name\":\"Catherine H\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/per\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/20060a70e859a4b543da2fe57ac0dd556657a47985ddcd9425b4d2b4906a40cf?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/20060a70e859a4b543da2fe57ac0dd556657a47985ddcd9425b4d2b4906a40cf?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Catherine H\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/per\/author\/ch1187\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"What Value Do PEPs Bring? The UK\u2019s First Public Engagement Professionals (PEPs) Week - Public Engagement with Research (PER) at the University of Exeter","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/per\/2026\/08\/17\/what-value-do-peps-bring-the-uks-first-public-engagement-professionals-peps-week\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"What Value Do PEPs Bring? The UK\u2019s First Public Engagement Professionals (PEPs) Week - Public Engagement with Research (PER) at the University of Exeter","og_description":"The 20th-24th\u00a0July saw the UK\u2019s first PEP week,\u00a0highlighting the role that Public Engagement Professionals play in facilitating engaged and participatory research across the Higher Education sector and beyond.\u00a0","og_url":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/per\/2026\/08\/17\/what-value-do-peps-bring-the-uks-first-public-engagement-professionals-peps-week\/","og_site_name":"Public Engagement with Research (PER) at the University of Exeter","article_published_time":"2026-08-17T08:21:57+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-08-17T08:21:59+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1350,"height":1080,"url":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/per\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/327\/2026\/08\/23529.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Catherine H","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Catherine H","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/per\/2026\/08\/17\/what-value-do-peps-bring-the-uks-first-public-engagement-professionals-peps-week\/","url":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/per\/2026\/08\/17\/what-value-do-peps-bring-the-uks-first-public-engagement-professionals-peps-week\/","name":"What Value Do PEPs Bring? The UK\u2019s First Public Engagement Professionals (PEPs) Week - Public Engagement with Research (PER) at the University of Exeter","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/per\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/per\/2026\/08\/17\/what-value-do-peps-bring-the-uks-first-public-engagement-professionals-peps-week\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/per\/2026\/08\/17\/what-value-do-peps-bring-the-uks-first-public-engagement-professionals-peps-week\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/per\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/327\/2026\/08\/23529.jpg","datePublished":"2026-08-17T08:21:57+00:00","dateModified":"2026-08-17T08:21:59+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/per\/#\/schema\/person\/ea977a7e4e9049adf0cb92b1f039e570"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/per\/2026\/08\/17\/what-value-do-peps-bring-the-uks-first-public-engagement-professionals-peps-week\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/per\/2026\/08\/17\/what-value-do-peps-bring-the-uks-first-public-engagement-professionals-peps-week\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/per\/2026\/08\/17\/what-value-do-peps-bring-the-uks-first-public-engagement-professionals-peps-week\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/per\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/327\/2026\/08\/23529.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/per\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/327\/2026\/08\/23529.jpg","width":1350,"height":1080,"caption":"Photography credit - Theo Moye"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/per\/2026\/08\/17\/what-value-do-peps-bring-the-uks-first-public-engagement-professionals-peps-week\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/per\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"What Value Do PEPs Bring? The UK\u2019s First Public Engagement Professionals (PEPs) Week"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/per\/#website","url":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/per\/","name":"Public Engagement with Research (PER) at the University of Exeter","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/per\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/per\/#\/schema\/person\/ea977a7e4e9049adf0cb92b1f039e570","name":"Catherine H","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/per\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/20060a70e859a4b543da2fe57ac0dd556657a47985ddcd9425b4d2b4906a40cf?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/20060a70e859a4b543da2fe57ac0dd556657a47985ddcd9425b4d2b4906a40cf?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Catherine H"},"url":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/per\/author\/ch1187\/"}]}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/per\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/327\/2026\/08\/23529.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/per\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/per\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/per\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/per\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2305"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/per\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1745"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/per\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1745\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1747,"href":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/per\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1745\/revisions\/1747"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/per\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/per\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/per\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/per\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}