Hook Your Audience is a toolkit of performance techniques to emotionally engage child and family audiences in interactive, educational presentations. It's been made available for free until the end of October.
Peter Hatfield, Hintze Research Fellow in the Department of Physics has been awarded the MPLS Impact Award in the Public Engagement with Research category for his work with the Institute for Research in Schools.
Congrats to Julia and Sofia on a successful application to the Departmental Capacity Seed Fund. You can read their project overview here. Applications for this have now closed, but watch this space for news on how this scheme may run in the future.
Julien Carponcy (MRC Brain Network Dynamics Unit), Joy Todd (GLAM Division) and Jozie Kettle (Pitt Rivers Museum) were awarded \u00a312,000 to support people with motor-related neurological conditions (such as Parkinson\u2019s, and their families and carers) to work with researchers, engineers, and artists/fashion designers to create their own aesthetically pleasing mobility solutions, and to empower them to manage their day to day lives, inspired and provoked by collections from the Pitt Rivers Museum.
Jacob Ward (formerly Mathematical Institute) worked with the Bodleian Library on the project that aimed to diversify the voices writing the future by inviting young people to collaborate with science and humanities researchers and a \u2018writer in residence\u2019.
The results of the Knowledge Exchange Framework were recently published, recognising the University of Oxford as a UK leader in Knowledge Exchange. The university performed well across many dimensions, and of course what I'm interested in... public and community engagement.
A new post on the LSE Impact Blog provides a run-down from several surveys that have looked to assess public attitudes to science during the last year, compared to surveys carried out before the pandemic.
Shamit Shrivastava (formerly Engineering Science), Kelly Richards and Carly Smith-Huggins (Museum of Natural History) created a pop-up experience in communities in Oxford, targeting young people (10-13) and their families. A free kit of \u2018do-at-home\u2019 experiments and investigations was given out, providing a way to connect with researchers, and to visit the Museum of Natural History to share what they\u2019ve learned and discovered.
If you're interested in doing some public engagement with research (PER) but not sure where to find help, we offer a range of support or can point you in the right direction: from training sessions to answering your questions during help desk hours.
As part of celebrations for International Women's Day this year the folks behind Finding Ada hosted a 'Comedy and Communication' hour long, live-streamed panel discussion looking at how we can all use comedy techniques in our STEM communications and teaching.
Professor Hawes (Associate Professor in Engineering Science) takes over from Professor David Pyle (Earth Sciences) who was the Division\u2019s first PER Champion, to provide leadership and support to progress the embedding of engagement into research practice.
Ken Amor and Sarah Lloyd (Museum of Natural History) were awarded \u00a35,000 with the aim of working with year 11 and 12 teenagers to explore the science of the IPCC reports and reinterpret them, with the support of researchers and museum collections and staff, by creating their own \u2018report\u2019 (written, video, art or performance), and sharing this report with policy and decision-makers.
A total of 21 projects have been funded through the 2020/21 PER Seed Fund, including 2 from MPLS. You can take a look at the funded projects for inspiration and ideas, ready for the next round that will open in Autumn.
Up to \u00a35,000 is available to support quick-responses for timely projects e.g., that are responding to unexpected and/or highly significant discoveries, or significantly heightened awareness of the social, cultural, or economic impacts of STFC science and technology.
The British Pharmacological Society offers small grants up to \u00a3250 or larger grants up to \u00a31,500 to support and promote engagement with all forms of pharmacology and drug discovery research.
This comment piece in Nature provides excellent, clear tips and food for thought if you're a researcher who wants to communicate the evidence to foster public discussion and build trust.
The Ideas Fund is a new grants programme delivered by the British Science Association and funded by Wellcome that enables the UK public to think about, develop and test new ideas related to areas of mental wellbeing that are relevant to them. The Fund connects communities with research professionals to bring their ideas to life. The Fund will launch mid-January and run until October 2023. The first round of funding will be focused on four localities \u2013 more information on these will be available when the Fund is launched.
\"Even during a bitter election season, persuasive conversations were not only possible, but surprisingly attainable\". It might feel like it's utterly impossible to have productive conversations about science sometimes but this article featured in Scientific American gives a really interesting perspective and reflections on effective strategies for having potentially sticky conversations. Get yourself a cuppa and give it a read; especially if your research is in climate change or any other 'controversial' area.
![\"Label](\"https://www.mpls.ox.ac.uk/public-engagement/latest/talking-to-science-deniers-and-sceptics-is-not-hopeless/responsive_image?ratio=image&scale=w760\")
\n \n \n\n\n ![\"Dr](\"https://www.mpls.ox.ac.uk/about/the-divisional-office/our-team/michaela-livingstone/@@images/image/w120\")
\n \n ![\"Dr](\"https://www.mpls.ox.ac.uk/about/the-divisional-office/our-team/fiona-suttle/@@images/image/w120\")
\n