The Principles

See here for the PDF of the Principles.

The German Principles, Der Kodex, is available here.

The Public Engagement principles serve as a guiding light for people who shape the dialogue between research and society. How do we want to approach citizens, what goal are we pursuing, and how can we ensure that researchers open up to this dialogue in the future? The Public Engagement principles provide answers to these questions.

What is Public Engagement?

"Public Engagement refers to an exchange between researchers and the public" - these are the first lines of the principles. Public Engagement encompasses more than "classic" science communication; it is oriented toward co-productive and bi-directional methods. We would like to support public engagement practitioners in Germany as a community and see a particular value in grounding this community in a uniform foundation. This starts with a unified definition of Public Engagement.

Our definition of Public Engagement developed in the principles is as follows:

"The term Public Engagement describes a practice of the German scientific community, a method of dialogue between science and society, and stands for the attitude that science and society benefit from mutual exchange."

What do we need Public Engagement principles for?

In order for Public Engagement to become more widespread and professionalized in Germany, we need a fundamental cultural change in science - and we want to be part of this change. This guide is an important step towards anchoring the importance of public engagement in German scientific culture and providing researchers and practitioners with a common working basis.

The Principles are a living document

We engaged in several public consultations, including an open science process, where practitioners of Public Engagement could comment on and transform the principles. We took every input seriously. Today the document is a completely different one from how it started out. To be further involved in the principles, you can join this LinkedIn group. We cordially invite all to participate and help shape the next iteration of the principles.

How were the principles made?

The Public Engagement principles were initiated by a working group that came together at the First Steps Symposium. Since then, the Berlin School has worked with Cyber Valley and an expanding group of Public Engagement practitioners to develop the principles. The process has been steadily managed in the spirit of Open Science. In addition to regular meetings with a wide variety of groups, we hosted several virtual and public consultations. The first iteration was published in November 2022