The Beacons for Public Engagement initiative is a four-year project, funded by the UK Higher Education Funding Councils, Research Councils UK and the Wellcome Trust., designed to create a culture change across the higher education sector. It consists of a network of
o Six beacons which are university-based collaborative centres that help support, recognise, reward and build capacity for public engagement work. The six Beacons are based in Newcastle and Durham, Manchester, Norwich (UEA), UCL, Cardiff and Edinburgh.
o The NCCPE - we co-ordinate, capture and share learning between the Beacons and across UK higher education institutions and research institutes.
Background
In February 2007, the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) invited applications from higher education institutions to set up six collaborative centres and one co-ordinating centre under this four year pilot project. A total of up to £9.2 million was made available by the funders over four years for this pilot initiative.
Entitled the Beacons for Public Engagement, it’s an initiative which has brought the funding bodies together for the first time to establish a co-ordinated approach to recognising, rewarding and building capacity for public engagement.
Reasons for the Initiative
To address the need for culture change within HEIs so that public engagement was supported across all subject areas and throughout the full range of activity by HEIs.
Who are the Public?
Public engagement has been defined by the funders as
‘specialists in higher education listening to, developing their understanding of, and interacting with the public - non-specialists who do not currently have a formal relationship with an HEI through teaching, research or knowledge transfer.’
The Centre is hosted between the University of Bristol and the University of the West of England. Our partners include the BBC, Museums Libraries and Archives (MLA), v - the young people's volunteering charity - and many others.
Their role is to inspire a culture change in how universities engage with the public through working with all the beacons to promote best practice in public engagement and provide a single point of contact for the whole higher education sector. They also work strategically with their key national partners to help develop work across the sector.
The Beacons
The six beacons are university-based collaborative centres that are working to support, recognise, reward and build capacity for public engagement. The beacons are at the forefront of efforts to change the culture in universities, assisting staff and students to engage with the public. Their partners include further education colleges, museums, galleries, businesses, charities, TV and press, and public bodies.
Edinburgh Beltane - the beacon named from a Celtic festival that unites the whole community - is working to enable researchers to share their ideas with the public and between themselves - highlighting the benefits of approaching an issue from different angles.
The Edinburgh Beltane aims to embed a culture change within the higher education partners through fostering growth and changing perceptions, 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.
- Developing a collaborative partnership throughout the Edinburgh Beltane
- Embedding a culture of public engagement across the partnership
- Running events and activities with partners & share best practice
- Establishing effective training and support.
- Developing structure to meet ongoing public engagement support needs.
Beacon North East - Beacon North East is a partnership between Newcastle University, Durham University and the Centre for Life. They support and promote good quality public engagement at the universities and help to influence the culture of their partner universities to further value communication with wider society. They believe that academic experts can improve the quality of research by working with 'experts by experience' outside the academic world. Their vision is to help create positive change for the communities and universities involved in the Beacon North East project.
Manchester- The Manchester Beacon uses engagement to connect people, place and knowledge to make its internationally acclaimed resources accessible to all. Its activity is shaped, informed and led by people living and working in Manchester and Salford to ensure that all local people, across diverse sectors benefit from the beacon's collaborative endeavours.
To achieve this, the beacon is:
- Signposting to existing opportunities and initiatives for people to get involved in
- Supporting partnership working through networking and professional development
- Stimulating innovation by funding multi-disciplinary partnerships to generate new and creative ways to make a difference to our communities
CUE East - CUE East is led by the University of East Anglia (UEA). It is designed to foster an informed climate to improve quality of life, support social and economic regeneration regionally and inculcate civic values. It recognises that as much attention needs to be paid to inward looking activities as to outward looking activities.
CUE East also aims to change the culture within the University to ensure public engagement is embedded as a worthwhile activity in itself. Whilst a lot of excellent public engagement work already takes place around the University, the beacon is keen to identify and build on good practice delivery structures across the University which include the Norwich Research Park (NRP), the John Innes Centre (JIC) and the Sainsbury's Centre for the Visual Arts (SCVA). Over time, this project will be looking to review and refresh internal processes, procedures and structures, such as the appraisal and promotions criteria, so that public engagement can be encouraged, recognised, and rewarded.
Wales Beacon - The Beacon for Wales is working with the universities in Wales to help them show how the work that they do is relevant and vital to modern Wales. We are doing this through:
- Encouraging university staff and students to listen to the public to find out what they want from universities and how they want to be involved
- Encouraging universities to reward high quality public engagement by its staff and students
- Encouraging university staff and students to undertake more engagement and to learn how to do it better
- Helping members of the public and university staff and students to meet with each other to learn more about the needs of each side.
UCL - Money from the Beacons for Public Engagement scheme allowed UCL to set-up a Public Engagement Unit with three staff, who help colleagues across the University to widen and improve their public engagement work. Their programme builds on UCL's existing strengths in working with the public, and happens alongside cultural shifts in other parts of the University, which are increasingly focussing on local communities, London and UCL as a Global citizen.
They are working to identify the barriers to UCL staff working with the public, and then to dissolve them. They fund projects, assist staff applying for external funding, support new networks of engagement practitioners, develop embedded training programmes, and run a small number of their own projects.
