Recognising, supporting and rewarding public engagement activities

1
Recognising, supporting and rewarding public
engagement activities

• Roger Grinyer
• Head of Corporate Communications
• Higher Education Funding Council for England

2
Consultation on HEFCEs draft strategic plan

• We want to explore with our partners whether
  there is scope for a more coherent and
  co-ordinated approach to engaging with the
  public, while recognising that institutions have
  different aims and priorities.

3
The approach to recognising, rewarding and
supporting public engagement

• Developed in partnership
• Evidence based and builds on good practice
• Ensures that all subjects and a wide range of
  activities are included
• Based on dialogue with the public
• Non-burdensome
• Based on pilots and evaluated

4
Cultural imbalance
Engaging with the non-specialist public
Research driven
5
Characteristics of public engagement
Systems and structure (Institutional,
professional, strategic)
Plethora of initiatives (Individual, fragmented,
transitory)
6
Centres for Excellence in Public Engagement
steering group

• Rama Thirunamachandran HEFCE (Chair)
• Roger Grinyer HEFCE
• Roger Carter HEFCW
• Kerry Leslie Research
  Councils UK
• Judith Henderson Scottish Funding Council
• Caroline Hurren Wellcome
  Trust
• Peter Brown British Academy
• Rachel Bishop EPSRC
• Gary Kass Office of Science
  and Innovation
• Darrem Bhattachary Royal Society
• Patricia Ambrose SCOP
• Sue Hordijenko The British
  Association
• Fiona MacLeod Universities UK
• Professor Kathy Sykes University of Bristol

7
Centres for Excellence in Public Engagement
pilots

• Aim
• To create a culture in HEIs where public
  engagement is valued
• Objectives
• To raise the status of public engagement
• To enable institutions to build on good practice
  and develop networks within and between
  organisations
• To develop beacons which achieve culture change
  by overcoming barriers

8
Centres for Excellence in Public Engagement
outcomes

• Young people, their families, individuals and
  groups
• are more aware of the contributions and relevance
  of different subjects and the links between them
• feel inspired to explore the opportunities in
  higher education which are open to them
• feel more empowered to take an informed part in
  the democratic process and the decisions
  affecting their lives.

9
Centres for excellence pilots
10
Centres with distinctive themes

• Create dialogue in areas which might inform
  policy development and decision making
• Combine activities in different disciplines e.g.
  arts and sciences
• Engage young people

11
One centre will have a co-ordinating role

• In many HEIs there is little understanding or
• co-ordination of PSE initiatives and individual
• departments are also working in isolation.
• Steve Mesure, CreScendo Interim Report for
• NESTA
• April 2006

12
Funding proposals

• Funding to total 8 million over four years
  beginning in 2007-08
• Funding will support six pilot centres with one
  providing a co-ordinating role
• Applications invited from institutions for up to
  300,000 per year for four years. Collaborative
  bids welcome
• Co-ordinating centre may seek up to 500,000

13
Funding

• HEFCEs board has agreed to provide up to 4
  million over four years
• HEFCEs funding is conditional on matched funding
  from other partners
• A baseline review will be carried out in
• 2007-08 and a further evaluation in 2009-10 to
  inform future policy

14
Possible timetable

• September 2006 funding decisions made
• November announce scheme and invite outline
  proposals
• February 2007 deadline for outline proposals
• April invite the most promising to develop
  business plans
• June announce the successful pilots