Science Together: Oxford Researchers and Communities – Join Us!

what is science together?

Launched in 2021, Science Together is an exciting programme, connecting Oxford’s community groups with researchers from the University of Oxford and Oxford Brookes University to respond to local needs, interests and perspectives impacting the lives of local people.

These research projects are defined by the community groups and have practical outcomes that address particular challenges or opportunities they have identified for people who live and work in Oxfordshire

Through facilitated workshops researchers will connect with local communities as a starting point to identify and develop funded, collaborative projects that help these communities to overcome a challenge or seize an opportunity. Projects could take any form, for example identifying levels of pollution in a local area, designing a new piece of technology, or something else entirely. It all depends where your research interests overlap with those of the community group. University PER staff will be on-hand to help you and the community group identify areas of common interest and opportunity, which will form the seed ideas for your collaborative project.

We're looking for researchers of any discipline to partner with the community groups, and and for University staff with an interest in public engagement to act as facilitators for the collaborations that emerge.

Researchers

We are seeking researchers from the University of Oxford and Oxford Brookes University. The researchers can be from any discipline and at any career stage from postgraduate study onwards. You do not need to have previous experience in Public Engagement with Research in order to participate, the only essential requirement is that you are open to working with diverse community groups in an equitable manner, valuing all forms of knowledge and embracing new modes of working as part of an exploratory programme.

Facilitators

We are looking for public engagement support staff from across the University of Oxford and Oxford Brookes University. The facilitator's role is to support the developing community/researcher partnerships and act as ‘creative agents’ spotting potential areas of common interest and asking the right questions at the right time to help the projects progress. We are keen to hear from anyone with experience in public engagement with research and community engagement, who can use these skills to foster partnerships and ensure the collaborative research projects are grounded in community needs, interests and opportunities.

Funding

Each project team will be given a budget to develop their collaborative project, and the community group partners will be paid for their time. All programme costs are covered so participation in the programme is free for researchers and facilitators.

This Year's Community Partners

The programme also requires an ongoing commitment from all participants until completion in spring/summer 2024. The amount of time offered can be agreed with the relevant community project group, but as a guide we anticipate approximately one or two days per month.

For any queries please contact sciencetogether@mpls.ox.ac.uk