Training Portfolio

Find out how Public Engagement can work for you

Get to know the Public Engagement landscape and discover the possibilities tailored to your skills and research area.

This introductory session will get you started on the path to become an engaged researcher. It gives you an overview of the diverse field of Public Engagement, from science communication to research participation. We will look at the underlying principles and benefits, and how engagement can become an exciting and valuable part of your research practice. You will be encouraged to consider your own motivations for engaging, your key messages and the audiences you are looking to connect with. By bringing in local, national and international examples, we will reflect on the many faces of engagement and what next steps you can take on your individual journey. You will also get to know our wider training offer and how we can support you.

Following this session, you will be able to:

• Understand the principles and benefits of Public Engagement and how they connect to your research practice and career

• Find clarity on the key messages of your research and your own motivations for engagement

• Appreciate the breadth of approaches and formats in the field to find what suits your skills and audiences

• Seek out opportunities for further training and professional development

Put people at the heart of your Public Engagement

A step-by-step guide to support you in planning, developing and managing your own high quality, audience-centred public engagement projects.

How do we plan, design and deliver formats that put audiences at the centre and create a mutually beneficial exchange? This module takes a closer look at what we need to develop successful Public Engagement projects. We will introduce you to the process of stakeholder mapping to identify your core audiences, their needs and desired outcomes, and explore different approaches and formats to help you achieve those aims. The session also covers practical elements around project management and partnership working. You will take away a holistic understanding of the building blocks for meaningful engagement, and develop your own engagement roadmap.

Following this session, you will be able to:

• Appreciate the building blocks of an audience-centred approach to Public Engagement

• Be able to identify your stakeholders and their needs

• Appreciate the strength and limitations of different engagement formats and approaches

• Be able to develop a feasible engagement plan for your research

Make the most of your engagement

Take the first steps to keep track and demonstrate the value of your Public Engagement activities and improve your practice in a structured way

What difference are you making for your audiences and yourself through your engagement activities? This session provides an overview of the evaluation process and the reasons why evaluation is important for a high-quality engagement practice. It will guide you through the When, Why and How to evaluate successfully, and how to set up a simple evaluation framework that helps you answer your questions. You will get an introduction to different qualitative and quantitative methods, and what you can do with the data you gather. After this session, you will be able to bring evaluation into your own activities to monitor and evidence outcomes.

Following this session, you will be able to:

• understand the role, value and limitations of evaluation

• determine what you want to evaluate and why in a simple evaluation framework

• apply appropriate evaluation methods for engagement activities

• make use of the information gathered in an appropriate and useful way

Captivate your audience

Create appealing stories that connect people with what matters most in your research, and learn how to deliver them with confidence

How can we share our passion for our topic in a way that connects with people, without losing what is important? This practical training session will introduce you to storytelling as an approach to accessible research communication, and the skills that will help you make compelling and confident presentations. We look at what makes a good story, with examples from culture, science and media, and how you can apply these tools in a research engagement context. We will then jointly explore useful presentation skills - from body language to jargon-free language - and practice them in a safe space. As well as discovering the value of stories, you will begin to develop your own research story with plenty of practical advice and peer feedback.

Following this session, you will be able to:

• Identify different storytelling tools used in successful communication

• Construct compelling narratives about your research that can captivate non-specialist audiences

• Confidently present your research in a range of different settings

• Develop your capacity for constructive feedback and mutual support

Discover the power of visual communication

Utilise visual storytelling techniques to effectively communicate with your audiences.

A picture tells a thousand words. Research is full of images, diagrams, infographics and visual language. Visual storytelling can help audiences connect with your research and enhance your work in many different ways. Here we will explore the reasons why you might visually communicate your research, when you might incorporate visual elements in your research, and crucially, how to create visuals with practical tools and techniques. We will also consider the audience's perspective, who are you trying to reach, what is your message, which channels will be most effective to reach them, and how can you ensure your visuals remain accessible.

Following the session, you will be able to:

• Understand the role of visual communication in research and engagement

• Identify visual approaches relevant to your research and feel confident in applying them in a meaningful way

• Draw on a set of simple practical tools to create high quality visual elements without the need for an artistic background

• Appreciate the importance of audience perspective and accessibility, with the tools to make visuals more accessible and inclusive

Create exciting activities and opportunities for interaction

Discover how interactive and playful approaches can help you create stimulating and meaningful engagement experiences for different audiences

This lively, hands-on workshop will introduce you to interactive formats and activities in Public Engagement. Play and creativity are powerful tools for learning and exploration, and they can help us create memorable experiences for a wide range of audiences and settings. In this session we will look at the building blocks of successful interactivity, such as audience agency and access. We will also explore practical formats for both creative delivery and design, from festival stalls to games and creative workshops. You will get a chance to try out different tools and reflect on their use. At the end, you will be equipped to bring playful and interactive elements into your own engagement practice to connect with audiences in an inspiring way.

Following this session, you will be able tol:

• Appreciate how interactive and playful approaches can enhance and deepen your public engagement practice

• Be able to design activities that give audiences agency and create comfortable spaces for exchange

• Feel comfortable and confident delivering and facilitating different creative formats

Build your brand and connect with your audiences online

Engage effectively online through the main social media platforms and build your profile and presence strategically.

Description
Sharing your work on social media might seem straightforward but making an impression can be more challenging. How can you ensure that the time you invest is well spe

nt and that you are not shouting into the void? This interactive session deconstructs the various ways you can successfully engage on social media as a researcher, from building your personal brand to connecting meaningfully with your audiences.

Objectives
Following the session, you will be able to:

• Define your audiences and purpose for engaging them

• Raise your professional profile, using social media as a networking tool to build your personal brand

• Optimise the reach of your content with key techniques for each platform and channel (Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok)

• Plan your content creation time effectively with helpful tools

• Understand how to make your content accessible, inclusive, safe and ethical

• Avoid negative encounters online and feel equipped to deal with them

• Track and demonstrate the reach and influence of your online engagement using Altmetrics

Demonstrate Meaningful Impact

Equip yourself with tools to evidence the impact and positive change of Public Engagement and demonstrate positive change across research and society

Successful Public Engagement benefits research, researchers and the public in a myriad of ways but how do we evidence this change, demonstrate the impact of our practice and communicate this to our stakeholder? This session will take a deeper dive into evaluation, focusing on strategic approaches and the tools that can support this work. We will look at how to create detailed project evaluation plans, the use of logic models and appropriate methodologies for measuring indicators of impact. Beyond the process of evaluation, we will also consider how to report on this data and how it can be communicated to funders and institutions. This session will build your capacity to not only plan and deliver engagement but to showcase its value in a strategic way.

Following this session, you will be able to:

• Create a robust project evaluation plan that covers multiple objectives, activities and stakeholders

• Feel confident designing appropriate methodologies for measuring indicators of impact

• Apply specific evaluation formats with nuance and purpose

• Report your findings in a clear and compelling way to communicate with influential stakeholders