Why public engagement matters (2024)

Find out about the benefits of public engagement to you, your research and public groups outside the University.

For researchers at Bath, engaging public groups with their research tends to serve three purposes for them:

to share and inform others about their work
to listen to people and communities outside the University
to collaborate with people and communities beyond academia

Having a clear purpose and a consideration of the people you are hoping to engage with are the foundations of high-quality public engagement and shapes the type of work you may choose to do.

No matter what your skills, experience, motivations and ambitions, getting involved in public engagement can deliver significant benefits to you, your research and to wider society.

Improving the quality and impact of your research

Engaging public groups with your research can offer fresh perspectives on your work in a variety of ways for example engagement can help shape your research questions as well as challenge any assumptions you have about your research or the methods you are using. Ultimately engagement has the potential to enrich the focus, clarity and relevance of your research. Impact is the change to society or the economy that comes from your research and whilst public engagement itself is not always impact engaging public groups with your work can also be a valuable route to generating that change.

If you are interested in finding out more about how public engagement can be a rout to impact the Research and Innovation Services have a Planning for Impact Toolkit to help you to think through who might benefit from your research and how.

For further information on the benefits of public engagement for you, see the UK Research and Innovation’s 'What's in it for me?' guide.

Public engagement can create opportunities for people and communities to discuss, create and participate in research.

Work by the National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement with universities and research institutions have revealed some of the key benefits to people and communities of engaging with research. Public engagement can help:

increase the accountability and transparency of research
help research and universities respond to social needs locally, nationally and globally
help to build trust and mutual understanding

Public engagement can demonstrate to funding organisations how you are involving public groups in your work and sharing the outputs of from their support of your research.

Major funding organisations such as UK Research and Innovation are committed to supporting and rewarding researchers to engage people, communities and society with their research aiming to achieve a culture where public engagement is embedded alongside research and valued as an important activity. As such the Research Councils are signatories of the Concordat for Engaging the Public with Research, which outlines the expectations and responsibilities of research funders with respect to public engagement.

Effective public engagement can be a route to impact which can be included in the Pathways to Impact section of the Research Councils’ grant applications.

Impact is the change to society or the economy that comes from your research. Public engagement can be a rewarding and useful way to generate that change and public engagement activity can be included your Pathways to Impact section of a Research Councils' grant applications. If you are interested in including public engagement in your Impact Summary the Research and Innovation Services have a Planning for Impact Toolkit to support you to think through who might benefit from your research and how. The National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement also have a useful guide on Pathways to Impact.

If you want to know more about engaging public groups with your research, get in touch.