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Resources for Public Engagement

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Contacts

  • Departmental Communications and Public Engagement Staff - Please contact the DPAG Academic Lead for Public Engagement, Shankar Srinivas, if you require any help with or advice on setting up a public engagement activity or would like to investigate securing funding for your activity. Do not hesitate to contact Talitha Smith, DPAG's Communications Officer, with details of your involvement in any public engagement activity so that it can be promoted in the news. 
  • Divisional Public Engagement Coordinator - Contact the Divisional lead on public engagement, Brian Mackenwells.
  • Departmental Communications and Public Engagement Staff - Contact details for relevant staff based within MSD departments.
  • Public Engagement Facilitator (PEF) Network - new University-wide network, which will create opportunities for shared learning and best practice in all things PER. It is aimed at professional services staff who actively support, facilitate and/ or lead PER as part of their role. Email publicengagement@admin.ox.ac.uk to sign up.
  • Sign up to the New to Oxford PER Buddy Scheme - supported by the PEF Network, the ‘new to PER at Oxford buddy’ scheme is an informal and flexible way for those who are new, or relatively new, to PER at Oxford. You’ll be connected to a buddy who can answer questions, introduce you to what's going on in terms of PER support, information and programmes that you might not otherwise be aware of, and just generally be a friendly face whilst you find your feet.

Resources

  • MSD Public Engagement Materials Suite - The Division have recently produced a suite of materials to support public engagement, including banners and t shirts, which can be used at all kinds of events, such as science fairs or workshops. Most of the materials can be borrowed from the Medical Sciences Divisional Office in the JR, but DPAG have also been allocated 10 t-shirts available for use at public engagement events. Please contact Talitha Smith if you would like to borrow t-shirts. 
  • Public Engagement with Research (PER) Portal - Information on public engagement from the University of Oxford.
  • PER Digest - Register for the Public Engagement with Research Digest, a monthly newsletter published by the University's PE Coordinator and intended for staff within the University for which public engagement is a key part of their role. If you would like to receive the digest, please email Luke Caunt.
  • Oxford PER Conference 2018 videos: videos from the University's inaugural Public Engagement with Research Conference including the closing plenary led with UKRI and Research England.
  • Oxford PER Conference 2020 Sessions & Resources: The second Oxford Public Engagement with Research Conference (a first for online) took place in July 2020 with four days of sessions featuring internal and external speakers and over 150 delegates.
  • Oxford Sparks - A portal for schools and the public to engage with the wealth of exciting research taking place across the University. Contact Dr Michaela Livingstone-Banks for more information.
  • National Co-Ordinating Centre for Public Engagement (NCCPE) - Further resources for public engagement activity.
  • NCCPE Online Engagement guide - NCCPE has crowd-sourced ideas and created a guide to running meaningful online engagement events and meetings. Download the NCCPE guide.
  • NCCPE / NERC Researcher Engage Academy - For NERC-funded researchers who want to boost the impact and reach of their research through high-quality public engagement.
  • Knowledge Exchange Concordat - eight principles for institutions to follow for effective knowledge exchange – including engagement with the public and communities.
  • A guide to using virtual events to facilitate community building: event formats - This guidebook, created by staff and community members at the Center for Scientific Collaboration and Community Engagement, is intended for scientific community managers, event organisers and convenors who are looking to design engaging and inclusive virtual events.
  • Parkinson's UK - interactive communications toolkit - Parkinson’s UK have developed an interactive communications toolkit to help researchers in all areas of health research to keep in touch with their participants. The toolkit is designed to support better communication and feedback between researchers and participants. The toolkit is designed to be adaptable for all areas and scales of clinical research. 
  • Evaluating online engagement: a guide with best practice examples - Download the guide to learn about a range of tools that can be used to evaluate a virtual festival or online Public Engagement with Research event. This guide demonstrates real examples of online evaluation tools that have been used for previous online events at the University of Oxford, and includes top tips and reflections from researchers and engagement facilitators.
  • Research England launched a review of the first iteration of the Knowledge Exchange Framework in March 2021, including Public and Community Engagement as one of seven ‘perspectives’. 
  • The NCCPE has produced a review of 117 of these narratives exploring activities, institutional support, strategies, monitoring and evaluation - Public and Community Engagement in the KEF: A thematic review.

Training

  • Training for the Medical Sciences Division - information about PER courses run specifically for MSD and MPLS researchers.
  • University Public Engagement training - Other Public Engagement with Research courses within the University.
  • MPLS Division PER Training - a number of free PER training courses designed for science researchers, but open to all in Oxford's research community (unless otherwise stated) including researchers, professional services staff and DPhil students; courses include ‘PER 101’, ‘Communicating your Research through story’, ‘Podcast your science’, and ‘Effective two-way engagement’.
  • Oxford Sparks Ambassadors - This scheme is an initiative providing hands-on training and support for researchers to create online videos to share with the wider pubic about their research. 
  • NCCPE: Public Engagement Professionals (PEP) Network - The PEP Network aims to support members to access CPD, peer support and the latest thinking on engagement.
  • NCCPE: new 'Meaningful online engagement' online course dates: The NCCPE is offering an expanded programme of online courses for individual researchers and public engagement professionals to attend. Learn from their expert team of associates in an interactive, dynamic environment.
  • A Recipe for Evaluating Citizen Science – recording & resources (SSO required) - Watch the webinar and download the first of our Evaluation Recipes to be taken step-by-step through evaluating an online citizen science project to gather evidence of outcomes and impact and how to improve activities, using an online survey. Find out how we planned and conducted the evaluation of the Planet Hunters Citizen Science project on The Zooniverse and how to adapt the methodology for your own Citizen Science project.

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