Case Study: Public Engagement with Research at the University of East Anglia

CUE East Case StudiesAutumn 2010

Engaging with Communities…City, Coast and Countryside

CASE STUDY: Public Engagement with Research at the University of East Anglia

2 : CUE East Case Study

WelcomeWelcome to our case study publication onpublic engagement with research. The role ofCommunity University Engagement East (CUEEast) at UEA is to provide an environmentwhere public engagement with research andteaching is encouraged, supported andfacilitated. This publication is one of threeissued in autumn 2010, almost three yearsinto the four year national pilot. The others areon our Public Engagement ContinuingProfessional Development Programme and onPublic Engagement with Teaching. All tell youabout some of the wide range of engagementactivities that we have supported and how theyhave helped to change the culture of theUniversity. This edition focuses on publicengagement with research and helps todemonstrate the impact of the work that CUEEast has undertaken and supported. It isinformed by a number of evaluation reports andconversations with engagement practitionersand community partners. In addition, we areespecially pleased to present Dr LauraBowater’s story, ‘in her own words’.

The CPD edition provides an assessment of theCUE East staff development programme andthe Teaching edition profiles five UEAengagement practitioners. As a pilot, we arekeen to share not only our own challenges andlessons from a CUE East perspective but alsoof those experienced by practitioners who maybe described as being ‘at the coalface’. Thatway, other individuals and institutions maybenefit from the breadth and depth of ourexperience when they seek to develop their ownengagement activities and missions.

This edition is co-authored by Dr Julia Stinton(the Beacons Researcher), Liane Ward (CUEEast Operations Manager) and Julie Worrall(CUE East Project Director). Dr Stinton worksalongside the team and her role is to evaluateCUE East. She is employed by City CollegeNorwich and undertakes a range of evaluationactivities in order to provide constructivefeedback on significant learning points as thefour year programme develops. This has helpedus to embrace the practice of continuousimprovement in all aspects of our programmedelivery and it has been enormously beneficial.

Julie WorrallCUE East Project Director

This case study publication identifies and discusses the background to the programme, aims and objectives, a ‘typology’ of public & communityengagement, process, activity, outcomes and impact, and includes a finalword from Dr Rob Liddiard, UEA’s School of History. It is informed bycontributions from engagement practitioners and their ‘community partners’and by a number of funded project evaluations. A key objective of CUE East isto increase levels of support, reward and recognition for public engagementacross the institution with the aim of introducing and embedding a culture atUEA where knowledge dialogue is encouraged, nurtured and supported. Tofacilitate this CUE East provides advice, liaison, brokerage and facilitation,talks, workshops and presentations, community contacts and partnerships,assistance with event organising, project and small expense funds, andprofessional development opportunities. Staff and students have beenoffered opportunities to develop, expand and apply their public engagementunderstanding, skills and knowledge in a wide variety of contexts.

CUE East Case Study:Public Engagement with Research

Summary

Cover image: The Butterfly Effect Project, CUE East & Partners Norwich and Norfolk Sustainable Living Festival, May 2009 (see page 9)

The UK Higher Education fundingcouncils and Research Councils UK,in association with the WellcomeTrust, Beacons for PublicEngagement: Invitation to apply for funds (December 2006)

University of East Anglia (2007) CUEEast Business Plan 2008-2012

McDaid, L. (2008) A qualitativebaseline report on the perceptions ofpublic engagement in University ofEast Anglia academic staff ReportNo. RS7408, The Research Centre,CCN, Norwich

McDaid, L. (2009) BBC MakingHistory Workshop: ‘The Value ofResearch?’ An evaluation report byThe Research Centre Report No.RS7419, The Research Centre, CCN,Norwich.

McDaid, L. (2009). The first Norwichand Norfolk Sustainable LivingFestival 2009 Evaluation

McDaid, L. (April 2009) CUE East:Annual Evaluation Review Year 1, The Research Centre, CCN, Norwich

McDaid, L., Stinton, J. (2010). CUEEast: Annual Evaluation Review Year 2Report No. RS7410, The ResearchCentre, CCN, Norwich

Project evaluation report on World Artin the City (unpublished)

Project evaluation report on TheButterfly Effect (unpublished)

Evaluation report on the User Involvementwith Research Workshop (unpublished)

Worrall, J (April 2008) Foundation forUEA Public & Community EngagementPromotions Criteria; with specificactivities, measures and questionsfor discussion (unpublished)

UEA’s Green Book, July 2010(unpublished)

UEA’s Centre for Staff & EducationalDevelopment (CSED) Programmes2008-2011

Sources

CUE East Case Study : 3

A core focus of CUE East is to increase levels ofsupport, reward and recognition for publicengagement across the institution. The BaselineResearch recommendations proposed ‘…the term‘public engagement’ should be clarified and atypology of activities developed’ and ‘…thebarriers to public engagement that have been

identified should be considered, along with anypractical steps to address them’ (McDaid 2008.p7). Table 1 (overleaf) indicates how the CUE Eastprogramme aligns with and is applicable to theBeacons for Public Engagement (BPE) aims andCUE East objectives.

Aims and Objectives

The UEA led Beacon, CUE East, is both inwardlooking (encouraging a change of culture inrespect of public engagement) and outwardlooking (promoting meaningful discourse with the public):

“Our ‘knowledge dialogue’ activities aredesigned to foster an informed climate withinwhich we are all better able to improve qualityof life, support social and economicregeneration regionally and inculcate civicvalues. Our aims are divided into three inward-looking activities and three outward-looking activities.” (CUE East Business Plan, 2007, p.15)

The change of culture refers to the aim to makepublic engagement an integral part of academicpractice that is recognised, valued and rewarded.This includes research,

“In an internal environment that fosters,records and rewards engagement activity, we believe that research excellence can bepositively correlated with effective andexemplary engagement activity.” (CUE East Business Plan, 2007, p. 1)

The challenge of achieving and demonstratingculture change was acknowledged in the originalbid for the Beacon status,

“…Like true public engagement itself, it is a complex, multi-faceted process andcannot be achieved by simple ‘engineering’ ordemonstrated by statistics or monetary valuessuch as visitor figures at museums/publiclectures and annual spend.” (CUE East Business Plan, 2007, p.12)

The Baseline Research whereby 55 academic andresearch staff were interviewed about their viewson university public engagement and wherecultural and institutional barriers to involvementwere explored, provided a qualitative baselineagainst which the change in institutional culturecould be assessed. The interviews highlightedthat most academics believed public engagementwas important but not as important as otheractivities, such as research and teaching, and for some, administration. A Senior Researcherconcludes,

“It’s very difficult to say because it almostcomes into a different category because it isnot part of my job description or one of themeasures against which I think I will ever bemeasured… it’s more like deciding do I wantto go for a run today? It’s something I enjoyand it’s important but I don’t really see it aspart of my paid job.” (McDaid 2008. p25).

This illustrates that for many, public engagementwas seen as a bolt-on activity and not an integralpart of research or teaching. In contrast, however,for some disciplines, described in the BaselineResearch as being more ‘public-facing’ such asthose in the in the Faculty of Health, publicengagement was shown to be synonymous with‘user-involvement’ in both research and teaching.The Baseline Research will be repeated in 2011.

Background

Of the academics interviewed for the BaselineResearch, 84% said that they had personally been involved in some form of self-defined publicengagement. The interview sample included ahigh proportion of senior academics, thus it wasunlikely that the 84% applied to the wider UEAcommunity. Many of the activities cited were one-way communication activities, such as media work, public lectures and writing for thenon-specialist audience. A smaller number of

two-way dialogue activities, such as participatoryresearch and interactive events, were given as examples (McDaid 2008. p6).

The Baseline Research identified a number of barriers to public engagement such as time; career progression; peer approval; theresearch-led culture; perceived risk; funding;attitudes towards public engagement; the media;and, the challenges of engaging people.

CUE East describes public and community engagement as a multi-faceted and complex activity thatbenefits UEA staff and students, the University as a whole and the community. It has devised asimple model, now incorporated in UEA’s academic promotions criteria, which reflects the one, two and three way types of engagement:

A ‘Typology’ of Public and Community Engagement


Table 1: How CUE East plans to meet itsobjectives and those of the Beacons initiative

Beacon for Public CUE East Objective To be achieved throughEngagement Initiative Aims

Create a culture in HEIs and To introduce and embed • Incentives and Reward research institutes and centres a culture at UEA where Schemewhere public engagement is knowledge dialogue activity • Enterprise and Engagement formalised and embedded as is encouraged, tracked, tracker a valued and recognised activity evaluated and rewarded • Engagement CPD Programmefor staff at all levels appropriately • Enhancement Fund

• Sustainable Living

Build capacity for public To introduce and embed Partnership Fund

engagement within institutions a culture at UEA whereand encourage staff at all levels, knowledge dialogue activitypostgraduate students, is encouraged, tracked,and undergraduates where evaluated and rewardedappropriate, to become involved appropriately

Being in dialogue with the public and policy-makers

3 way

e.g. governmentalcommittees involving theacademic as the ‘expert’,such as an expert panel,government led publicconsultation and taskforces, and activemembership ofprofessional bodies.

Providing a service and being in dialogue with the public and communities

2 way

e.g. volunteering, promoting and employinguser involvement in research and the co-production of research, forums, focusgroups, seminars and debates that involvethe public, pro-bono schemes, dramaoutreach, museum education, continuingeducation and lifelong learning, contributingto the organisation and delivery ofengagement activities.

Communicating knowledge and enriching cultural life

1 way

e.g. public lectures, media work,writing for the non-specialist,exhibitions, showcasing academicknow-how, pro-bono schemes,communicating research to thepublic, acting as the lead for majorfestival themes, contributing to theorganisation and delivery ofengagement activities.

Table 2: The key mechanisms through which culture changeis to be achieved and examples of specific activity

CUE East Objective

To be achievedthrough

Incentives and Reward Scheme

Enterprise & Engagement tracker

Engagement CPD Programme making available engagementtraining for staff andstudents

Enhancement Fund

Sustainable LivingPartnership Fund

Examples of activity onencouraging & supportingengagement with research

New & revised academic promotions criteria

CUE East Public Engagement Awards

A pilot an online system forindividuals to record theirengagement activity (to be evaluatedDecember 2010)

User Involvement in ResearchWorkshop (see vignette 1)

Write Out Loud Workshop (seevignette in CPD case studypublication)

Science, Art & Writing (SAW) TrainingWorkshops for postgraduates

Introductory sessions forpostgraduate researchers & staffbriefings

Training on ‘How to Run a SuccessfulCafé’ (see vignette in CPD case study publication)

World Art in the City (see vignette 3)

Collaborative research in Mental Health

The Butterfly Effect (see vignette 2)

Sustainable Long Term Care for Older People (see page 10)

Invisible Dust – linking leading worldscientists and postgraduate studentsto local artists and schools


The ProcessCUE East, often acting as an intermediary and facilitator,encourages and supports public engagement with researchvia a range of activities.

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Vignette 1: User Involvement in Research WorkshopSupported by the CUE East Engagement CPD Fund

Background

Leaders – Dr Fiona Poland (pictured below),School of Allied Health Professions & Dr LauraBowater, School of Medicine, Health Policy &Practice, UEA’s Faculty of Health. Supported by PPIRes (Public & Patient Involvement inResearch), the NIHR Research Design Service and CUE East.

There is a growing recognition that involvingservice users, carers and members of the publicin research processes can help to make researchmore relevant to peoples’ lives and concerns. It can also make it more likely that the researchfindings will be used and lead to improvedpractice. Despite policy shifts towards involvingthe public in the research process, it is importantto recognise that this calls for a move away fromconventional research that has been mainly drivenfrom the focus, interest or expertise of theresearcher rather than users or the public. Manyresearchers remain unaware of, uninterested in orreluctant to move towards a research base thatdraws upon ‘public expertise and experience’.However, while researchers moving towards suchengagement will be entering into a changingresearch environment, it can also be seen thatinvolving service users, carers and members ofthe public, means immersing them in researchprocesses that they may experience as bothunfamiliar and alien. Several such barriers to‘service user-led research’ have been identifiedwithin the Faculty of Health at UEA. However itcould also be seen that this Faculty had, overrecent years, developed a pool of staff andstudent expertise in addressing at least some ofthese. Such expertise was drawn on in anexercise to provide researchers and service userswith confidence and skills to begin to involve thepublic within the research process by offering aone-day introductory workshop to engage withissues of PPI, that is, public and patientinvolvement in research.

Learning Outcomes

The one-day workshop was designed forresearchers and those planning research. It used a mixture of information-giving, real-lifeexamples and experience-sharing with otherresearchers and service users to achieve thefollowing outcomes so the participants:

• begin to understand what involving the public and people who use services in research

can mean, consider reasons for involving thepublic and people who use services in theresearch process,

• explore ways in which the public and peoplewho use services can be included and involvedat difference stages of the research process,

• begin to develop the skills needed to involvethe public and people who use services atdifference stages of the research process.

Key Events

The one day workshop has now run on twooccasions: October 2009 (20 participants), April 2010 (15 Participants). The course isuniquely cross-sectoral in being offered as part of the Faculty of Health Short Course programmefor researchers external to UEA whilst also beingoffered through the CUE East section of theUniversity’s staff development programme and in postgraduate research training options.

Challenges

The course is designed to facilitate a culturechange within research. Involving the publicthroughout the research process is a new conceptthat presents initial challenges to researchers andmembers of the public involved in research. It canbe an unfamiliar concept to many establishedresearchers who have built successful careers inan era when public participation wasn’t promoted;researchers who may ask ‘why fix something thatisn’t broken?’.

To exemplify its promotion of user involvement in research, it was important to plan and run the course with the integral involvement of service users, carers and members of thepublic.This brought challenges for scheduling andorganisation that required specific investments of time, money, communication and negotiation.

The course relies on the successful participationand engagement of all who are involved and it isimportant to manage expectations. This meansexplicitly recognising that everyone brings:

• intrinsic value and useful experience,

• different experience and values,

• expectations which may differ from each others.


Lessons Learned

Administrative support and negotiation areneeded to surmount the particular challengesraised in crossing organisational, disciplinary andcommunity boundaries. This is even more so inPublic & Patient Involvement (PPI) because extrasupport and development is needed to back upthe main activity, because extra thought needs tobe given to accessible communications andbecause new ways of collaborating are beingestablished between previously separated groups,teams and organisations.

The response to the course has demonstrated aneed for this type of workshop. The course mustcontinue to be adapted to a range of challengeswhich include changing facilitators, agendas andpolitical climate. More and specific support needsto be given to service users and carers and UEA iswell-placed to address these.

Key Outputs

The workshop has been successfully deliveredacross a range of skill-levels and disciplines and is now scheduled to run on a regular basis.The course was evaluated and very positivefeedback was received from the participants,including the ‘PPI’ partners,

“I was surprised by the ease with which people from very different backgrounds were able to share ideas.”

“I thought there was a great mix of delivery ofinformation and opportunities for participation.”

“It will significantly change certain aspects ofthe research project I am involved with.”.

The community partners involved with the courseprovision were from PPIRES, ConversationPartners and mental health services user groups.The course is now embedded within the HealthFaculty’s MSc in Health Research training forAcademic Clinical Fellows.

Forward Plans

It is planned to run the workshop again in April2011 and to build upon the experience andlessons from the first two sessions. The coursewill also be expanded into a Master’s modulewhich will seek to give recognition and validationto community as well as academic partners’expertise and learning gained in developing andcarrying out the workshop. The aim is to workacross and involve wider sections of thecommunity whose experience to date may havebeen more as research subjects rather thanresearch partners (such as much older people,people with cognitive impairment and those frommore socio-economically-disadvantaged groups).

CUE East has supported the user involvement in research agenda, particularly in UEA’s Facultyof Health, and facilitated a discussion betweenPPIRes (Public & Patient Involvement withResearch – recent workshop pictured overleaf)volunteers and UEA academic staff whichaddressed a number of key issues on procedures,expenses and on the status of Visiting Researcherrights for active PPIRes volunteers. Penny Vicary(pictured left), a lay member of PPIRes, hasrecently participated as a ‘co-applicant’ in asuccessful research award application from theNIHR Research for Patient Benefit Programme (PB-PG-1207-13321).

The project, ‘Improving Preoperative Education for Colorectal Surgery Patients and their Relatives(PREPARE), is led by UEA and the Norfolk &Norwich University Hospital and Penny’scollaboration as a co-applicant is a majorbreakthrough:

“My involvement in PREPARE has given me theopportunity to move on from the traditional‘user involvement’ role to something muchmore tangible. For example, with Dr Gregory’ssupport, I’m contributing as a co-researcher,analysing interview transcripts.”

Penny Vicary

User involvement in research



Penny was also actively involved at the conceptstage of this research, influencing a number ofkey factors in the development of the researchsuch as the inclusion of non-cancer surgerypatients (35% of the patient group) and the timingof follow-up appointments. Penny’s voluntarywork, in addition to PPIRes, includes theMacmillan and Department of Health NationalCancer Survival Initiative and GeneticsProgramme. She has also set up her own supportgroup, Pandora’s Box and chaired the Norfolk &Waveney Cancer Network. For the past ten years

Penny has championed the rights of patients to play an equal role in research:

“Achieving real equity in involvement is achallenge in a research culture where userinvolvement can become too professionalised.I mean, there’s an assumption, for examplethat everyone has access to an officeenvironment. Communication needs to beaccessible, putting the power back intopatient’s hands”

Penny Vicary

CUE East has developed strong links with theAssociation for Research in the Voluntary &Community Sector (ARVAC est. 1978), a nationalmembership organisation and resource for peopleinterested in research in or on communityorganisations.

“Partnership-building is vital for developingcommunities’ research capacity. Building linksbetween HE and community groups, asenabled by CUE-East, demonstrates the valueof creating new learning networks and insights.This has suggested alternative ways to bringtogether diverse experiences and expertise inways which would have been less likely withouttheir focus and encouragement.”

Dr Fiona Poland, Chair ARVAC

CUE East has supported a wide range ofengagement including helping to enable access

to community research for hard-to-reach groups,facilitating and amplifying the dialogues betweencommunity and higher education researchstakeholders, e.g. in facilitating and publicisingthe “user involvement” debates, anddisseminating lessons from community researchcapacity building partnerships through workshopsand conferences. CUE East has written articles forthe ARVAC Bulletin and in April 2010, hosted theARVAC Annual Lecture at UEA London on thesubject, Towards a theory of user control andcommunity integration in voluntary actionresearch with speakers Professors Carl Milofsky(Bucknell University, US), Peter Beresford (BrunelUniversity), Peter Halfpenny (Manchester University)and Cathy Pharoah, Professor of Charity Fundingand Co-Director of the ESRC Research Centre forGiving and Philanthropy Research. Supported bythe CUE East Marketing Fund.

Collaborate community research

Vignette 2: The Butterfly Effect Project at the CUE East & PartnersNorwich & Norfolk Sustainable Living Festival May 2009


Background

The Butterfly Effect Project, funded by the CUEEast Sustainable Living Partnership Fund(£12,500), took place between January 2009 and early 2010, with the main design installationbeing the centre-piece of the Festival in May 2009(pictured below). The Project, a pilot for theCreativeData series conceived by LeonoraOppenheim of Elio Studio, took inspiration from aPhD thesis on Visualising Future WetlandLandscapes by Paul Munday at UEA’s School ofEnvironmental Sciences. Paul studied future land-use and climate change in the Norfolk Broads,using the UKCIP national future socio-economicclimate scenarios and applying them locally to theBroadland area through the use of GIS mappingsystems.

The title of the installation refers to the chaostheory that small actions now lead to largerunknown consequences later. This concept notonly encapsulates our current position on climatechange, but was also reflected in the installationthrough the process of people interacting with it.The process also addressed the three projectthemes of uncertainty, time and responsibility.

Key Events

Four months research including interviews withmembers of the public at The Norfolk Broadsabout their experience of the area and in the cityof Norwich, at the market place and The Forum.People were asked about their relationship withThe Norfolk Broads in the past and present whichhelped the team to gain an insight into howpeople viewed the Broads from a personalperspective and to what degree they felt the areawas under environmental threat.

An installation informed by Paul Munday’sresearch, public questionnaires and the field workresearch, which took the form of an enormousmap of The Broads occupying the central positionof The Forum’s floor. The idea for the map wasdirectly inspired by Paul’s work on the futuremapping of The Broads. During the Festivalmembers of the public were invited to interact with the map by placing icon stickers onto it thatsymbolised key sectors of The Broads chosenfrom Paul’s work. People were asked to chooseone of the three stickers in answer to thequestion; ‘what do you think the Norfolk Broadsshould be used for in the future?’ People werethen asked a second multiple choice question on,

‘what do you think will have the biggest effect onthe Norfolk Broads in the future?’ A third and finalquestion asked, ‘how do you think you can helplook after the Norfolk Broads?’.

CUE East, as the Festival organiser as well as theproject funder, facilitated liaison with the venueand provided storage for the installation materialsafter the Festival. Children’s workshops wereorganised and facilitated by UEA MSc student,Lucy Rose, as a part of the installation. The children explored the meaning of the iconstickers, answered the questions and envisagedtheir lives in 50 years time through drawings.

An innovative aspect of this project was the multidisciplinary collaboration between socialscience, climate science and creative designcommunication; Drs Lorraine Whitmarsh andSaffron O’Neil at UEA and the Tyndall Centre forClimate Change Research, Paul Munday andLeonora Oppenheim. A range of experts onclimate change and The Norfolk Broads wereconsulted during the project including ProfessorTim O’Riordan and Katy Appleton from UEA, Simon Hooton from the Broads Authority, DavidNorth from the Norfolk Wildlife Trust, and JerrySimpson, a volunteer ranger at Barton Broad.

Challenges and lessons learnt

People of all ages found aspects of interest in theproject. Unsurprisingly, often people did not takethe time to answer all three questions at theinstallation but the UEA MSc students who werehelping found that once they engaged people inconversation they were more willing to do so.

The team successfully stayed within the budgetbut Leonora Oppenheim greatly exceeded thenumber of days allocated to her as she spentmore than double the estimated time on research,design work and project management. The budgetrestrictions excluded the possibility of using anydigital technologies, increasing the need for wellthought out low tech creative solutions. A notableomission from the budget was funding to coverthe final dissemination of the project into localcommunities. This final stage emerged as a keyingredient to the success of The Butterfly Effectduring the project itself.

Health & Safety requirements at the venue meantthat not all the materials used could besustainable.

(Continued over page)


Postgraduate researchers are a key audience forCUE East in the light of the culture change agendaand the aim to embed engagement as an integralpart of academic practice. Dedicated briefings areprovided by CUE East for UEA’s Graduate Schoolsand CUE East supports postgraduate researchersin a number of different ways. For example, in 2010 Dr Mayumi Hayashi (UEA’s School ofHistory) was awarded a grant from the CUE EastSustainable Living Partnership Fund for extendingher post-doctoral research on sustainable longterm care for the frail elderly which involvescollecting oral testimonies from older residentsand their care providers in the Eastern Region.Fundamental to the vision of her research is theinvolvement of a wider community audience inlong term care policy discourse. Through herengagement Dr Hayashi has developed links withother projects and organisations such as Age UKand the Norfolk & Waveney Health Innovation & Education Cluster.

CUE East also supported the UEA PostgraduateResearch Showcases 2008 and 2010, which tookplace at The Forum, Norwich, by sponsoring apublic engagement prize, participating in the

judging and facilitating café Scientifiques whichtook place alongside the poster exhibitions. The two public engagement prizes were won by Linda Birt (UEA’s School of Allied HealthProfessions) for her research poster on ‘Men –working carers: the experience of men whocombine care giving with paid employment’, andJennifer Hodbod (UEA’s School of EnvironmentalSciences) for her research poster on ‘BiofuellingDevelopment – are Biofuels good or bad fordeveloping countries?’

“Having conversations with people outside of my own subject area made me consider the language I use and others perceptions of my work…”

Linda Birt, postgraduate researcher (McDaid, April 2009. p49)

The two Cafés were run by postgraduateresearchers, Kamena Henshaw, on The Value ofthe Family Meal (UEA’s School of Social Work &Psychology) and Adam Elliston, on Waste to Fuel:transforming rubbish to resource (Institute ofFood Research, Norwich Research Park).Supported by the CUE East Marketing Fund.

Involving postgraduate researchers

Forward Plans

The collaboration and the impact of The ButterflyEffect installation in the public space will beevaluated in an academic paper by LorraineWhitmarsh who is now working as a lecturer atCardiff University and is a Visiting Fellow of theTyndall Centre for Climate Change Research and a Research Associate at the ESRC Centre forBusiness Relationships, Accountability,

Sustainability & Society. Leonora Oppenheim isworking on further CreativeData collaborationsaround the UK which include collaborations withCardiff University on linking rural coastalcommunities with academic research on coastalerosion, with the Eden Project on the topic of foodsecurity and with Kings College London on anOlympics project linking sport, health and airquality in London.

(continued from page 9)


Researchers and academics led Cafés on sixsustainability subjects, e.g. ‘Is it selfish to havemore than two children?’, ‘Increasing happiness,decreasing consumption’ and ‘Water Conflicts orWater Wars?’. A total of 109 UEA staff andstudents and 30 community groups andorganisations were involved with the ten dayFestival which took place at The Forum Norwichand attracted 39,000 visitors. Staff and studentfeedback on the benefits of participating includedthe following:

“More confidence in running public exhibitions,readings and workshops.”

(McDaid 2009. p29)

“…increased contact with members of thepublic and hearing different points of view andperspectives from both older and youngerpeople on the topic under discussion.”

(McDaid 2009. p29)

The Cafés were funded by the CUE East FestivalFund; £1,100.

The CUE East & Partners first Norwich & NorfolkSustainable Living Festival 2009; Social ScienceCafés by the Faculty of Social Sciences, UEA

Moving Histories of Class and Community:Identity, Place and Belonging to ContemporaryEngland by Ben Rogaly & Becky Taylor (2009). Theresearch for the book was funded by a grant fromthe Economic & Social Research Council (ref: RES-148-25-0047) as a part of its Identities andSocial Action programme. The launch wasattended by the researchers, academic colleagues

from UEA, local residents and politicians. Apart from being a successful reunion of theresearchers and the Norwich Larkman, Marlpitand North Earlham residents who participated inthe research, the event also prompted a debate in the local press about the research andcontributed positively to UEA community relations.Supported by the CUE East Marketing Fund.

Community Book Launch in partnership with theWest Norwich Partnership, November 2009

Commissioned by CUE East as an ‘experiment’,this workshop provided an opportunity for fivemembers of the public and five postgraduateresearchers (from UEA and the NorwichBioscience Institutes) to explore the role ofresearch in society through four weekly sessions.The brief and the workshop invitation weredeliberately non-prescriptive, ‘a course with UEAexploring life experience…to talk about the valueof research’. For the postgraduate researchers,the main outcome was a fresh enthusiasm forpublic engagement and an increased appreciationof its importance,

“I think probably just a new enthusiasm for, I guess, research in general and kind ofbringing it to the community… It did just kind of ignite this idea behind the fact thatanything you are doing is relevant to society.”

(Postgraduate researcher)

“I suppose thinking about maybe how researchis perceived by other people and perhaps moreabout the importance of communicating that.”


“Yes, I learned that interaction is an invaluableasset to the research process.”


See the ‘Write Out Loud’ vignette in the CPD casestudy publication for more information about theworkshop facilitators and format, and the MakingHistory Evaluation Report by Lisa McDaid (2009).Supported by the CUE East CPD Fund. CUE East isfunding a Write Out Loud Workshop for UEA’sScience Faculty Graduate School in 2010/11.

A Making History Workshop on ‘The value of research’, 2009


Background

Leader – Dr Sarah Monks (pictured below), Schoolof World Art Studies & Museology (ART), UEA’sFaculty of Arts & Humanities. World Art in the City,funded by the CUE East Enhancement Fund(£3,572), was a series of twelve free public talks at The Forum, Norwich, given by members of ART on aspects of their research.

The aims of the series were to communicate thecharacter and noted excellence of ART teachingand research in an accessible, informal andbeautifully-illustrated format to people living in the region who are not in higher education; tocontribute to the public understanding of art andits histories; to increase the levels of aspirationand attainment amongst local groups; to encourageyoung people and potential mature studentsthroughout the region to apply to UEA. The talkswere followed by relaxed and informal discussionwith members of ART and with student helpers.

Key Events

In addition to the twelve lectures which took place in April, May and June 2010, a Facebooksite was set up. The site was a first attempt to showcase ART research in this way and itattracted 96 followers of whom 77% were under35 years and 68% lived in East Anglia. The serieswas promoted via posters and flyers to all sixth-form art departments, all FE colleges with artdepartments, all Norfolk adult education centres,libraries and the Norwich University College of the Arts. Parts of Suffolk and Cambridgeshirewere also targeted.

Challenges and lessons learnt

Attendances were initially low (33 and 40 at thefirst two talks) but this improved with figures ofbetween 65 and 84 for the rest of the series.Publicity was a substantial challenge; the ARTPress Officer was unable to secure theanticipated interest from the local media andadverts proved to be prohibitively expensive; the Project Leader was new to Norwich andunfamiliar with local art societies and networks(Professor Keith Roberts played a crucial role inestablishing a core audience); reaching beyondthe existing networks continued to be a challengethroughout the series. It is important not tounderestimate the costs and difficulties inpublicising a project effectively.

Informal audience feedback suggests that theremay have been some confusion between thisseries and the academic research seminars heldin ART and at the Sainsbury Institute for the Studyof Japanese Arts & Cultures where the talks areof a more academic nature. A solution is to findways of better articulating the intended targetaudience. Formal feedback was obtained via anevaluation form was handed out. 47 out of 72attendees responded. The majority of theaudience, 55%, were aged between 55 and 70years and 70% lived within two miles of The Forumand a significant minority of the total audiencehad little or no experience of higher education.Respondents praised the clarity of the talks. andstated that they had taught them about the sheerdiversity of art.

“Really enjoyed the informal format andlanguage used, makes all the topicsaccessible.”

“…never to accept my prejudices/preconceptions, but to be willing to questionthem and absorb new ideas…”

By running the series over several months, peoplewere able to engage with it in their own way andget used to the learning environment it offered.Running an event like this on a weekday, in theearly evening and in the city centre will attract amore diverse audience than would come to theUEA campus. Also, the opportunity to meet andtalk with the speaker was enthusiastically received.

The project gave a cohesive public identity to theSchool beyond its academic audiences. WhilstART members are already used to giving ‘non-academic’ public talks about their work, this wasthe first occasion for many years where they hadgiven such talks on a corporate basis andexplicitly presented ART itself as a body to a broadlocal public. The series gave the academics achance to sound out and disseminate research,some ‘hot off the press’, for example, JohnMitchell gave a first-time talk on his studies onthe Anglo-Saxon treasure recently found inStaffordshire.

Forward Plans

At least three of the talks were based on work-in-progress and have served as a prelude tosubsequent academic publications. The postercampaign also established contact with local art teachers at sixth forms and FE colleges.

Vignette 3: World Art in the City 2010


Vignette 4: Dr Laura Bowater (pictured below),School of Medicine, Health Policy & Practice, UEA

In her own words…

I was appointed to the School of Medicine, HealthPolicy and Practice as a Teaching Fellow in May2007. This was an indefinite contract but it was toa faculty position on an Academic Teaching andScholarship (ATS) track and not to the more usualAcademic Teaching and Research (ATR) trackposition held by the majority of my colleagues.Prior to my appointment at UEA, I had studied asa microbiologist and I used my experience as amicrobiologist to work as a post doctoral researchassistant at the John Innes Centre. It was duringmy time at John Innes that I started to becomeinterested in science communication, initially byparticipating in several organised events but withtime and experience I began to organise andcoordinate my own events.

My appointment at UEA corresponded ratherfortuitously with UEA (through CUE East) beingawarded Beacon status. I was able to use myexperience as a science communicator to workwith other faculty members throughout theUniversity to facilitate their learning andinvolvement in engagement opportunities. CUE East was able to buy out 10% of my time toenable myself and a colleague to develop anddeliver a public engagement practitionerprogramme for members of faculty, post doctoralresearchers and graduate students throughout the University and specifically in the School ofBiological Sciences, UEA.

It was also through my work with CUE East that Ibecame involved in a project organised by BristolUniversity on Science Engagement and Researchfor Change (SEARCH). This project was a series ofworkshops composed of a mix of engineers andscientists from different universities broughttogether to use action learning and the range ofexpertise of the group to explore and develop bestpractice in SEARCH. This has facilitated changewithin my own practice as an engagementpractitioner and has led to opportunities torepresent UEA and its engagement policies innational arenas that include policy documents,national conferences, national workshops andtraining events.

I have also been supported through CUE East to organise two key projects, The Darwin Radioshows and the Workshop on User Involvement inResearch short course programme. The DarwinRadio shows was an opportunity to work with acommunity partner, namely Future Radio, to writeand produce a series of radio programmes

that drew on the knowledge and expertise ofmembers of all four UEA faculties to celebrate theanniversary of Charles Darwin. This series of radioprogrammes provided opportunities for staff totalk about their work and their research to a layaudience. However we were keen to ensure thatthis was a community event and we worked hardto try involve and incorporate the interests andviews of the audience into the shows. TheWorkshop on User Involvement in Research isanother project that was designed to facilitate anengagement process between the University andthe community. This programme recognised thatthere is a role for research within the HealthSciences to take place within a University settingbut that this research can be improved byinvolving the audience (that the research isfocused on) within the research process.

Engagement can be done at many levels butorganising events and courses takes a hugeinvestment in time, commitment and energy. I often feel as if I am learning all the time and that I am constantly stepping outside my comfortzone. Being comfortable and confident in new and unfamiliar roles is becoming a lot easier.

I often feel as if engagement is still something to be ‘justified’ as part of my role and it is notperceived as a prerequisite for my role in thesense that teaching and administration andresearch are. However I also feel as if I am a trail blazer and I have been able to formulate myown role which is unique within my school andperhaps within the University.

I have learnt that for engagement to worksuccessfully as part of my role, it has to overlap seamlessly with my other roles and responsibilities and I am beginning to recogniseand use new ways to do this. I have incorporatedengagement into my teaching portfolio and intomy research portfolio.

Encouraging other members of staff to take onengagement is fraught with issues. The mainissue is time! The other issue is reward. The firstissue is surmountable but only if staff areprovided with time and opportunities. Reward issomething that is key and I feel that incorporatingengagement into the promotions criteria hasencouraged those that are practitioners to do somore blatantly and openly and proudly. At thesame time it has encouraged the skeptics to lookat the process again because it matters on a

(Continued over page)


Time, administration, negotiation, accessible andinclusive communications, planned marketing,venues, scheduling, evaluation… just some of the ingredients needed for successful publicengagement with research. Lessons from thediverse cases described in this publication can beapplied to a range of public engagement activitiesand projects. They are not just about the successof the intended outcomes (which are, of courseimportant in promoting community-universityengagement) but also about what is needed to setthem up in terms of much longer-term planning andrelationship building and what is needed to ensurethat they are properly evaluated in order tomaximise impact. It is important, for example, not

to underestimate the organisational andrelationship requirements for delivering publicengagement with research successfully. Theserange from essential health & safety and logisticalrequirements and the need for good marketing, tothe more complex demands of collaborativeworking with diverse groups and communities.

CUE East has acted as a small but effective cog ina large wheel and has assisted individuals andgroups both inside and outside the University towork together more effectively though more needsto be done. The quotes opposite are from TheStakeholder Perceptions Survey 2009, conductedas a part of the CUE East Annual Review,

Outcomes and Impact

personal level. There has also been a shifttowards acceptance of engagement among staffthat have little previous experience but are openminded and willing to become involved theopportunity to explore this facet of their careerpath. On a personal level, I have been included in two reports:

• The Road Ahead – a Sciencewise project for the then Department for BusinessInnovations and Skills.

• The RCUK Benefits of public engagement booklet.

I have been promoted to an ATS Senior Lectureron the back of my strength in teaching and mystrength in engagement. This has been down tothe inclusion of engagement in the promotioncriteria document. I feel as if I am the first personin the University to have received engagement onthis track (ATS) using the new criteria.

I was lucky enough to receive a CUE East PublicEngagement Award in 2010; I have beenrecognised for showing excellence in mycontribution to the University’s engagementagenda at UEA’s Congregation in 2010. I feelextremely proud to be an Ambassador for theUniversity’s engagement profile and feel as if

I have received a seal of approval for my role. I believe that this award has managed to movewhat I do from a peripheral part of my job to a key component of my job and my contribution to my institution.

With regard to forward plans, I am seeking todevelop a research career that is focused on andinvolves my interest with engagement. I am alsoseeking to develop my scholarship by providingme with opportunities to develop as a sciencecommunicator. Currently I am trying to have abook commissioned (with Kay Yeoman andStephen Ashworth) focusing on sciencecommunication for scientists.

And finally, I am trying to develop and expand myarea of expertise and my comfort zone namelyscience communication. I recognise that this is a small part of engagement but I also recognisethat my knowledge of a wider experience ofengagement will allow me to contribute and add a different perspective of science communication.I have also had an opportunity to straddledisciplines that I will bring to this role.

(continued from page 13)

In a recent workshop on Public Engagement:Themes, Challenges and Solutions, organised by Dr Lucy Marten and Professor David Bates at the Centre of East Anglian Studies (UEA’sSchool of History) and supported by CUE East, a presentation was made by Dr Rob Liddiard (UEA’s School of History and a CUE East PublicEngagement Award Winner 2010) on PublicEngagement and New Media: Virtual Part and the Walberswick Defences of WWII. Dr Liddiard(pictured left), who took a visionary approach indevising and directing the Walberswick project,described how the public engagement is not only borne out of MA research carried out at theUniversity but also continues to inform his teachingand provide new ideas for further research.

“I am constantly surprised by how publicengagement throws up new information for thisproject. Some of the most useful insights intowhat went on along this part of the coastduring the Second World War have come fromworking with local people and hearing theirstories about communities adjusted to wartime conditions. This has also fed intoundergraduate and post-graduate teachingwithin the School of History. In many ways, the Walberswick project has becomesomething of a virtuous circle between public engagement, research and teaching.”

Dr Rob Liddiard, UEA’s School of History

‘CUE East has made a big difference to theease with which other organisations can engage with UEA.’

‘I think the work of CUE East has improved theaccessibility of UEA to the public but I thinkmore work could be done.’

‘I am impressed by the level of awareness ofCUE East within the university – reflects theextent of their excellent work – and I believethere have been changes in the culture –to a certain extent.’

(McDaid & Stinton 2010. p28)

Public engagement, done well, can help to improvethe quality and impact of research; the ‘public’ canraise relevant questions and also be involved indefining and conducting the research, helping tokeep it relevant and responsive. It can challengeassumptions, sharpen thinking and help to buildtrust; discussing research with the ‘public’ can helpresearchers to examine their assumptions andintroduce fresh perspectives. Also, involving the‘public’ can help researchers to think through thesocial and ethical implications of their work anddemonstrate its social impact. Engagement canhelp researchers to develop transferrable skillsincluding project management, aiding theiremployment and promotion prospects.

Research funders in the UK recognise theimportance of public engagement in research and ask applicants to detail how they will do it inresearch grant proposals. Research Councils

UK (RCUK) seeks to create a culture where theresearch sector and researchers themselves value public engagement, through encouragingresearchers to engage with the public andsupporting and rewarding those who do so.However, our research-driven culture means thatpublic engagement is not a priority within manyuniversities. In addition, public engagement is often not well regarded by peers, and is difficult to undertake as it does not bring in significantfunding. This is one of the reasons why the UKhigher education funding councils, RCUK and theWellcome Trust came together to create theBeacons for Public Engagement, funded to 31st December 2011. CUE East is already starting to show impact, as illustrated in this case study publication,

“Over the past two years at UEA, CUE East hasinfluenced a number of changes which will helpto embed public engagement in institutionalpractices…Feedback from a range of sourcessuggests that such changes would have beenunlikely in the time period, if at all, withoutBeacon status” (McDaid & Stinton, 2010. p6)

It is also important, not just to be accountable to the research funders; the ‘public’ fund muchresearch and they are entitled to know how thatmoney is being spent and to feel a sense ofownership. Good public engagement may also lead to additional funding for engagement and for further research.

A final word…


For further information about the Beacons for Public Engagement project visit the National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement (NCCPE) web pages: www.publicengagement.ac.uk.The NCCPE works with all the beacons to promote best practice in public engagement andprovides a single point of contact for the whole higher education sector.

Funded by The HigherEducation Funding Councils, Research Councils UK andthe Wellcome Trust

Contact UsVisit our website: www.cueeast.orgWrite to us: CUE East, SSF Faculty Offices, 9/1.120, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJPhone us: 01603 591561Email us: [email protected]

Case Study: Public Engagement with Research at the University of East Anglia

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