Nottingham Catalyst — public engagement opportunity for researchers

January 25, 2013, by Tara de Cozar

Nottingham Catalyst — public engagement opportunity for researchers

Not entirely unrelated to our last blog post is a new pilot project being set up by the University’s Community Partnerships ‘ team. Nottingham Catalyst is a new programme which helps link research and public engagement across all faculties and schools.

The idea is to link up researchers with sections of the public relevant with their area of study, with the aim of sharing the benefits of higher education with the wider public. This would involve academics writing regular blogs on research progress, or specific aspects of the research which may be of interest to the public. The pilot will particularly focus on medical, clinical and translational research as there is already significant public engagement activity in these fields at the University. The online Community of Practise pilot will bring together researchers and people/groups affected by medical conditions or health problems relating to Nottingham research — and who may be able to bring a new perspective to the project.

Once this pilot is complete, new online communities of practise for other schools and faculties across the University – particularly those that find public engagement a challenge — will be developed. The team at Nottingham Catalyst are happy to accept expressions of interest from other researchers in other faculties. They support lots of other public engagement activities including public engagement training, events and activities across the University, so even if the pilot’s not suitable for you, another project might be…

So, do you fancy getting involved? There’s some info on the UoN workspace, or you could get in touch with Veronica Strain on ext 68747 to talk it through.

And if you do sign up, don’t forget to tell us how it goes!