About the Edinburgh Beltane
Background
The Beacons for Public Engagement project launched in 2008, funded by the UK Higher Education Funding Councils, Research Councils UK and the Wellcome Trust. The Edinburgh Beltane is one of six UK-wide Beacons for Public Engagement, and we are the largest partnership. Led by the University of Edinburgh, we bring together expertise from all the Higher Education Institutions in Edinburgh, plus the UHI Millennium Institute and 10 other public, policy, engagement and research organisations (see the full list of Edinburgh Beltane partners).
We are working towards a culture change, and aim to see a Scotland in the near future where:
- Public engagement is an integral part of the higher education ethos, and rewarded as a core activity
- Researchers feel competent, confident and fulfilled with their public engagement work
- The general public feel comfortable engaging with research, and are able to contribute valuable, formative opinions to public policy debates
Strategy
The Edinburgh Beltane – Beacon for Public Engagement aims to:
- embed a culture change within the higher education partners through fostering growth of, and changing perceptions about, public engagement practices, and
- to encourage citizen participation and understanding of areas of research relevant to public policy such as health and life sciences, energy and the environment.
Edinburgh Beltane – Beacon for Public Engagement has the following strategic objectives:
- Establish effective training and support for public engagement activities across the partnership
- Establish procedures to reward and recognise excellence in public engagement
- Promote quality in engagement (through skills development, reflective practice, shared best practice and shared resources)
- Support events and activities with partners to share best practice on public engagement in our theme, research relevant to public policy
- Build and support networks across the partnership to share best practice, promote collaboration and celebrate excellence in public engagement.
The Core Team
Dr. Heather Rea, Project Manager and Network Co-ordinator
Lara Crossland, Training and Development Co-ordinator
Sarah West Alin, Communications and Events Officer
Jehane Barbour, Project Administrator
Highlights to date
The Edinburgh Beltane has been proactive when highlighting the personal and professional benefits of effective public engagement to researchers, both directly and indirectly. We have also reacted to institutional lethargy regarding the inclusion of public engagement in strategic policies and promotion criteria. Our highlights to date include:
- Significant changes in attitude to public engagement within our partners, including alterations to staff development schemes and staff grading criteria to specifically include the term “public engagement”. For example, we have seen the University of Edinburgh College of Humanities and Social Science launch a comprehensive Knowledge Exchange Strategy, and the Royal Society of Edinburgh begin to develop a public engagement medal.
- Our prestigious Edinburgh Beltane Public Engagement Fellowship Programme, which continues to grow steadily. Current fellows represent five partners, spanning early-career postdocs through to professorial level staff. They develop their own skills, and act as ambassadors across their diverse subject areas (which include astrophysics, bilingualism, financial risk and immunology).
- Our working group format allows us to directly tackle key areas within the partners, such as training provision and Human Resources issues.
- Our pilot Learning lunch series provided a uniquely informal staff development opportunity, which illustrated the value of public engagement and boosted interest in our fellowship scheme and public engagement challenge.
- This community networking website is the culmination of an intensive research and consultation process to ensure we deliver a useful, centralised resource for sharing information and forming a supportive, sustainable network for public engagement practitioners
Looking forward
We will continue to raise awareness of public engagement, and ensure that more people can see the benefits first hand. We will concentrate on:
- Re-modelling some of our working groups to align with our future plans for expansion, for example, reformatting the communications group to short, intensive personal development presentations and networking sessions which will encourage broadened Edinburgh Beltane participation and involvement by communications professionals
- Introducing a Beltane certificate, an idea developed by our Training group to standardise public engagement training across the partners. Early indicators suggest this will raise awareness and ensure effective evaluation of the training on offer.
- Supporting the applicants of our first public engagement challenge call. We were delighted to receive a number of diverse, high-quality applications, and we have awarded funding to six successful applicants to allow pioneering public engagement and culture change projects to take place in 2010. We look forward to disseminating the reflective learning from these events throughout the partnership, and awarding further funding to the project with the most impact.
- Continuing to build public awareness surrounding the fact that higher education is more accessible than ever before. Collaborating with engagingscotland.net, we have ensured there is a vibrant public-facing website where our partners can promote their public engagement events. We will re-enforce this message and publicise the website through channels such as our promotional video.
How do I get more involved?
Feeling excited and inspired by the culture change? Find out more about increasing your involvement with the Edinburgh Beltane.
