Case Study: Co-ordination and networks to support Public Engagement

Project Description

The University of Edinburgh is a large institution (approx 8000 staff and 25000 students) with campuses spread out across the city and, like many large institutions, it has several pockets of public engagement activity. The following initiatives have helped to coordinate information about this activity and bring together people who work in this area.

Public Engagement Coordinator Roles at the College level

The University of Edinburgh has three colleges which are subdivided into Schools and Centres many of which have appointed Communication / Knowledge Exchange Officers as a result of research council funding requirements. There are also several science communicators or public engagement officers working on dedicated public engagement projects. At the College level, there are people in post who have a remit to host regular meetings with people involved in public engagement / knowledge exchange and maintain a mailing list. They also play an essential role in promoting institution wide networks and events.

Public Engagement Networking Events

Three public engagement coordinators established Threshold, a public engagement network in 2005. There are approximately 3 – 4  networking events per year which involve short presentations on different projects, opportunities to discuss new developments and network with others. The aim is to share best practice, be multi-disciplinary, support new collaborations, and share information about current projects. 

Links with the Edinburgh Beltane

The Edinburgh Beltane is a partnership between six higher education institutions (including the University of Edinburgh) and ten other partners. The Beltane acts as a central point of contact for information about public engagement, has active mailing lists and hosts many events. There are increasing links between institutions and also closer links with public facing partners including Our Dynamic Earth, National Museums Scotland and the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh. Networking events with local partners have been very useful to raise the profile of what the university can offer, find out what’s happening at other universities and the opportunities to work with local organisations.

Other networks

People involved in internal networks are also members of/ aware of the PSci Comm, BIG chat, Beacons and STEMPRA mailing lists, and relevant research council lists. These are a useful source of information about public engagement news on a UK level and often feed into internal discussions. 

Success factors

• People who have time and a defined responsibility to sustain active networks has been a crucial factor in the success of these networks.
• Holding regular meetings.  After people had the chance to meet ‘face to face’ a few times, there was then more use of institution email lists and direct contact to ask advice or share experience with colleagues.
• The networking events have resulted in new collaborations. This has led to closer working relationships, both within the university and with external partners, and increased the size of the community.
• Meetings across the institution and within different colleges have improved internal communications. It is now easier to keep up to date and more people are taking advantage of relevant opportunities. 

Lessons learned

• Include coordination in job roles: People often volunteer to act as coordinators but tend to be very busy. Including it as part of the job description can be effective.
• Focus on people not information: There is so much potential information to include on a central website it is easy to spend considerable time collecting information that goes out of date or isn’t used. At the University of Edinburgh, there has been mixed responses to wikis and email lists: they aren’t used unless there is a specific purpose to them. It can be more effective to have a central point of essential (and brief) information which flags relevant contacts. People often have specific queries: a quick chat with the relevant person is more helpful than wading through pages of information.
• It takes time to build relationships and networks: People who know about Threshold and other groups generally find them very useful. However, many others still aren’t aware they exist. It is challenging to reach everyone. This is improving through word of mouth, but there is a still an area to be improved.
• Make an effort to be multi - disciplinary: There is often a STEM (science, technology, engineering, maths/medicine) bias at events and colleagues in the arts, humanities and social sciences can feel a little overwhelmed. Including  case studies of public engagement activities from these disciplines can help.
• Link to wider events programmes: The learning lunch format of networking events works well, but it can be hard to go into more depth. Links with the Edinburgh Beltane and their events programme has provided opportunities to explore specific topics in more detail.  

Resources

Examples event programmes for a Threshold Event and job descriptions can be found in the Planning for Change Learning resources section.