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The University of Southampton
Public Policy|Southampton

Voice of Young Science Workshop

Thomas Richardson
Thomas Richardson

In November I had the privilege of attending the workshop ‘Standing up for science’ run by the Voice of Young Science team, this was an amazing opportunity for me, both as a recently graduated postdoc and as a new member of staff at the University of Southampton. With recent world events highlighting the interaction between science, policy and media this workshop was a timely reminder that scientists must have a clear voice to clearly communicate research.

It was great have the opportunity to ‘zoom out’ with peers from across the country, take a birds eye view of my field and really get thinking about how wide my knowledge actually is. As researchers we often get tunnel vision on our tiny corner of a research field and forget that we can contribute to public discourse on a wide range of topics around our field as well as being able to talk (at length) about our specific research. Having established that we could engage with a wide range of topics the workshop provided practical tips for engaging with the public and how to projects may be designed keeping public engagement in mind. I for one wasn’t aware before this of all the good work done by my universities policy office in helping researchers engage with the public and was happy to have this highlighted by the workshop.

Finally the workshop focused on how researchers can get involved in policy discussions, how policymakers use evidence and how facts, values and public opinion are used to ultimately make policy. This panel gave an intriguing view ‘behind the curtain’ of policy and sought to make it clear that all research may be valuable evidence for policy formation within its field.

Overall the workshop highlighted that even as a junior researcher I have an important voice on a wider range of topics than I was aware of and encouraged me to think about policy and public engagement from the early stages of project planning, an angle I was unlikely to consider before this.

Thomas Richardson, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Southampton

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Policy Projects

Voice of Young Science

The University of Southampton has begun partnership with Sense about Science on its Voice of Young Science (VoYS) programme in 2020. Click here to learn more.

Policy Podcasts

Policy Podcasts

Click here to listen to our Policy Podcast series. In each episode we speak to UoS researchers and experts, about their experiences confronting critical issues in the domestic and foreign policies.

Ways to engage

Ways to engage

Guidance on the many channels available to researchers to engage with policymakers.

Impact toolkit

Impact toolkit

Guidance on things to consider in the science to policy process and useful tips in planning and costing your impact activities.

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