The system of Beacons is the largest initiative ever launched to support public engagement throughout the UK. Funded by the UK higher education funding councils and Research Councils UK, its goal is to achieve a more joined-up and embedded approach to public engagement. The six Beacons (in Cardiff, Edinburgh, London, Manchester, Newcastle and Norwich) will be coordinated by a centre in Bristol. Below, you can read about their plans, which Andrea Cornwall evaluates
The National Coordinating Centre in Bristol
The NCC is a partnership between the University of the West of England and the University of Bristol. We’ll work closely with the six Beacons, and national partners including the BBC, the Museums, Libraries and Archives sector and Involve, to improve the quality of public engagement (PE). We emphasise listening to audiences and getting quality PE embedded in institutions and cultures.
Leadership is a key role. Through advocacy, dialogue and collective action with the Beacons we will raise the profile of PE, to secure long-term funding and to reward staff and students who do it well.
We want to improve practice across the sector, building up and connecting thriving, reflective communities through workshops, conferences, events and e-communications that connect people with passion, expertise and curiosity about PE and how to do it better. We’ll build on existing good practice, listening to the public and practitioners from inside and outside Higher Education.
We’ll create a framework for PE, collaboratively defining what it is, why it matters, how to do it better and ways of measuring impact. We’ll develop a charter, challenging Universities to further embed PE in their mission and work.
Kathy Sykes holds the Collier Chair in the Public Understanding of Science at the University of Bristol
Cardiff
The Beacon for Wales will pilot four public engagement programmes to capture the imagination of a wide-cross section of communities in Wales.
It will explore Welsh identity in the twenty-first century, climate and sustainability, health and wellbeing, and social and ethical aspects of science and technology. Designed to engage more fully with ‘harder to reach’ groups, the pilots will open up opportunities for people from all walks of life to take part in research and learning.
The pilots support two main aims of the Beacon for Wales. One is to offer training for staff who want to get more involved in public engagement. The second is to trial and evaluate new techniques enabling universities to reach audiences better with activities that encourage social, ethical and scientific debate.
The Beacon for Wales will appoint high-level champions for public engagement within each of its higher education partners. It will work with senior staff and university management, and enable universities to learn from engagement with the communities they work in. Our other partners (BBC Cymru Wales, National Museum Wales and Techniquest) will utilise their particular areas of expertise to engender a wide spectrum of engagement techniques, reaching out to audiences across Wales.
Eluned Parrott heads the Community Engagement team at Cardiff University
Edinburgh
Each of the Beacons aims to improve communication between researchers, large organisations and the public. In Scotland, the Parliament offers different avenues for public opinion to influence the decision-making process. Our Beacon – Edinburgh Beltane – is tapping into this by giving people access to researchers so they can get involved in public policy and make informed lifestyle choices.
A major advantage of our Beacon is that we bring researchers together from a wide variety of disciplines including medicine, life. This also includes how we look at science, engineering, social sciences and big issues affecting us all, such as climate the arts. change, health and energy policy.
Edinburgh Beltane – a partnership of more than a dozen organisations – will show researchers the benefits of communicating with people who approach an issue from different angles.
We will ensure advances made in science, technology and medicine are conveyed and considered in a way that relates to everyday life. This also includes how we look at
big issues affecting us all, such as climate change, health and energy policy.
Mary Bownes is a Professor of Developmental Biology at the University of Edinburgh and Vice Principal of Edinburgh University
London
UCL plans to build on its already outstanding record of public engagement by establishing a Beacon Unit to provide a physical and virtual point of contact for staff and students and to ensure that all public engagement activity is integrated, targeted, supported and valued throughout the university.
UCL ‘s Beacon partners are the British Museum, the South Bank Centre, Arts Catalyst, Birkbeck College, City and Islington College, and the Cheltenham Science Festival. They bring wide-ranging expertise of working with diverse communities in London, nationally and internationally.
The Beacon Unit will provide a range of targeted activities including training courses, mentoring, and online resources. The Unit will also contribute to policy development, build networks and facilitate the opening of UCL’s public spaces as venues.
Key to the implementation will be targeted Beacon Bursaries for post-graduate students and post-docs, Beacon Fellowships for academic staff and Beacon Project grants to support public engagement programmes. UCL will also make an annual staff award for outstanding public engagement.
Dissemination and evaluation of our work will be continuous. The British Museum will host two conferences and UCL’s Beacon Unit will work in collaboration with the National Coordinating Centre to share best practice.
Michael Worton is Vice-Provost and Fielden Professor of French Language & Literature at University College London
Manchester
The Manchester Beacon for Public Engagement is an exciting partnership that combines the complementary interests and expertise of the University of Manchester, Manchester Metropolitan University and the University of Salford, with the unrivalled reputation for outreach activities of the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry and the established track record of partnership-building of Manchester: Knowledge Capital.
The Manchester Beacon will build on the current extensive programme of activities of the partners to create innovative new ways of working that will make public engagement more central to academic life at the three universities. Our activities will be shaped and informed by the creativity and dynamism of the people of Manchester and Salford to ensure that all members of our local community, particularly residents from the poorest and most excluded neighbourhoods, benefit from our work.
The Manchester Beacon will focus on reaching out, listening to and learning from local people. The Beacon will test new methods of public engagement and evaluate the impact on all those involved.
Nancy Rothwell is Vice President for Research and MRC Research Professor of Physiology at the University of Manchester
Newcastle
iKnow represents a paradigm shift for relationships between expertise and citizenship.
It has three unique features. First, participatory approaches that will allow academic specialists to learn from those who have had little power to influence research agendas, yet are experts by experience on various aspects of their lives. Second, the very issues that form the subject focus of iKnow will be shaped by experts, their fellow citizens and internationally prioritised research agendas. Third, IT and mobile phone partners, such as Intel and Three, will work with iKnow in developing and applying new ideas from citizens.
At the core of our approach is the formation of communities of practice – small, purposive knowledge networks that have been shown to be at the heart of processes that generate new ideas, analysis and innovation.
Each iKnow team will have a year to refine their focus, gather and analyse evidence, and reach provisional conclusions. Their conclusions may require alteration of government policies. We will then work with these stakeholders, alongside smaller grassroots groups, to try to bring about the necessary changes.
Tom Wakeford is based at Newcastle and Durham Universities and the Centre for Life
Norwich
Our local Beacon, Community University Engagement East (CUE East), embedded at the University of East Anglia on the Norwich Research Park, will build on our nationally renowned public/academic engagement activities such as the Teacher Scientist Network and the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts.
The programme includes a scheme that will reward individuals for significant contributions to public engagement and an interactive tool that will enable them to record and develop their engagement ‘profile’.
We will also set up a one-stop shop located off campus, providing a city contact point for the public and digital facilities for UEA staff and students to use in their public engagement activities. We will fund new activities under the broad theme of Sustainable Living, to embrace issues such as ethical consumerism, the GM debate and climate change.
Our 22 partners, include BBC East, the East of England Development Agency and Business in the Community.
Julie Worrall is at the Research and Business Services Division at the University of East Anglia