There are many different reasons for engaging a public audience with research. These can be grouped into three broad categories:
Informing - to educate and inspire, making research more accessible (eg so schools pupils, adults, families will take an interest in your subject area; or to publicise and disseminate your research results)
Consulting - actively listening to people's views, concerns or insights (eg to involve them in formulation of your research questions, or in a phase of the research)
Collaborating - working in partnership with the public to solve problems together, drawing on each other's expertise.
Its important to define your purpose for engaging at the outset, so you can plan accordingly.
See the NCCPE's website for more on this.
We talk about engaging the public, but that could be anyone and everyone! Your reasons for engaging will help you to narrow down the group(s) of people that you need to engage with, and this in turn will help you identify the best ways of doing that. See the NCCPE's Understanding your audience pages for more guidance on this.
There are many different ways that you can engage, and some will be more suited to your purpose and audience than others. The NCCPE website has comprehensive guidance and information on this.
Ethical issues are present in everything, and you need to be aware of any that affect your target audience so you can deal with them sensitively. You may also be interested in using your engagement to explore the values held by yourself and the people you are engaging with - which may differ quite markedly. The NCCPE has resources to support your thinking and planning on this.
One of the most important aspects of your engagement plan, evaluation should be woven in to your engagement project lifecycle. See our evaluation guide for how to make this happen.
Parkinson's UK, Alzheimer's Society and NIHR UCLH Biomedical Medical Research Centre have recently collaborated on a project to explore experiences of patient and public involvement in lab-based research. The project has resulted in the development of new guidance to support lab based researchers at all stages of their careers to actively involve patients, carers and members of the public. The website - developed in partnership with the researchers and PPI contributors involved in the project - offers practical advice to help researchers plan involvement activities and feel more confident in working with patients and the public. Please see the external links below.
The University cannot accept responsibility for external websites.