National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement (NCCPE)

The NCCPE offers six ‘off the shelf’ training courses, in addition to other initiatives, to support and further develop PE work. The six courses include:

• Meaningful Online Engagement
• High-quality Public Engagement
• Evaluation: developing your approach
• Working in partnership – for researchers
• Introduction to community engagement
• Engaging the public with controversial areas of research

The NCPPE also has the Engage Academy - a year long development programme for professionals in public engagement. They host an annual Engage Conference for all those interested in PE in higher education, too.

Royal Society

The Royal Society hosts several sessions regarding Public Engagement both for experienced and non-experienced researchers. You can see what training sessions are available here.

They also run two innovative schemes whereby researchers can get paired with politicians and experienced scientists respectively.

The Pairing Scheme allows scientists to pair with UK parliamentarians and civil servants and learn about each other’s work, gaining an insight into how research can help inform policy making. This years offering appears to be online, and more information can be found through the above link.

The Mentoring Scheme allows new and up-and-coming research leaders the chance to be paired with an experienced mentor.

British Science Association

Similarly to the pairing scheme offered above, the British Science Association runs an initiative called Media Fellows. This is where scientists spend two-six weeks working at a media outlet such as the Guardian or BBC. Here they can learn how the media operates and reports on science and how to engage the general public with science through media.

They also run a programme aiming to connect Community Leaders with local researchers to promote innovative community-led science engagement in Community Buddies.

Sense about Science

The Voice of Young Science (VoYS) offer free workshops for STEM and social science early career researchers, trainees and medical professionals. 

Useful resources such as Public Engagement: A Practical Guide are available too.

BIG STEM Communicators Network/BIG Science Communication

For those wanting a more informal take on PE, the Communicators Network run fortnightly events gathering people who work in, or are interested in, science communications, outreach or public engagement in STEM. This is a chance to share ideas and upcoming events. More information on the next set of events here.

Being Human: A Festival of the Humanities

On Being Human’s website there are a series of toolkits to aid with hosting a successful public engagement event. Topics include:

• Socially distanced events
• Focusing on your audience
• Working with a partner
• Finding the right venue
• Working on a budget
• Finding the right format

ESRC Festival of Social Science

An annual festival with the aim of encouraging and creating opportunities for researchers to engage with the public while increasing awareness of the social sciences. As part of the festival, they hold a weeklong series of events held across the UK, which can be found here.

National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement

• Whole host of resources available. PE evaluation guides can be found here
• More general help on all things PE can be found here

Wellcome Trust

• Planning your public engagement
• Step-by-step guide to planning public engagement activities

National Institute of Health Research (NIHR)

Dedicated section of the website called Learning For Involvement has a series of training and resources relating to PE and public involvement.

British Ecological Society

• Social Media for Ecologists. Step-by-step guide on how to get the most out of your online presence. Also looks at how to monitor your impact and engagement
• Building a Website on WordPress for Engagement
• Graphic Design for Education and Engagement
• Recording of past workshop held in 2020 titled Developing Activities with your Audience in Mind

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)

Guidance on engaging the public with your research - UKRI.

Script

Free training and networking resource for journalists, scientists and anyone wanting to communicate science. Find out about free online courses, practical guides and bespoke training.

Video Series Available

Talking Science: An Introduction to Science Communication: a video series by Greg Foot introducing techniques to help talk with the public about science, technology, engineering and maths.