Public Engagement | Ethics & Society

About Public Engagement

The aim of public engagement is to foster a dialogue between science and society that builds trust and understanding. This collaboration leads to research that better incorporates diverse public needs and values, resulting in sustainable innovation and societal sustainability. By engaging the broader public, research can be more relevant, acceptable, and desirable, while also anticipating and addressing potential roadblocks and public concerns about new knowledge and technologies.
Use this tool to reflect on how to engage with the public to enhance your research and its impact.

Meet Dr. Patel

Dr. Patel is a leading researcher within autism and works with combining neuroimaging and genetics. However, a recent discovery of the relationship between genetics and autism has received large public backlash. This poses a dilemma for Dr. Patel and her team about how to approach the subject…

Watch the video with Dr. Patel – what would you do if you were in a similar situation?

The Public Engagement Quiz

As part of your research project, you need to conduct a public engagement activity. This has been agreed with your funder to increase public interest and support. Now how do you approach this task?

When arranging your engagement activities, how do you address the right crowd?

I want an open citizen meeting and wish to invite everyone interested. Therefore, I put up posters at local community centers and libraries and create posts on relevant social media.

I wish to get the right people involved and at the right level. I therefore make a list of the most relevant stakeholders (industry, policy makers, professors) and invite each of them personally.

My research is within brain health and therefore I wish to invite patients with relevant diseases. I therefore contact patient organisations to get in contact with the right patients.

When planning the engagement activity, how planned and structured do you want it to be?

The most important thing is for people to have their honest say. I therefore arrange an open hearing with three questions for debate and an open floor for people to discuss.

It is important to me to be able to manage the debate while still maintaining a level of open debate. I therefore arrange a list of fixed questions and a workshop with group work followed a joint follow up where all the contributions can be written into a document.

If the engagement activity must be successful, it is important to have a focus on the right output. I therefore draft the final rapport with empty slots for the participants to fill out. Then the discussion is focused and centered on realistic and relevant issues.

You had a successful citizen engagement workshop and produced a report with all the reflections from the participants. How do you go about disseminating the report to ensure the right impact?

After having done the engagement I will send the report to a relevant EU office or to the funders. I do not have the capacities to ensure the right impact of a public engagement and trust someone else should have better abilities to handle this.

I believe the results are mainly relevant for the people within my research area and network, so I would share them with my own group and possibly department and discuss how to go from here.

These outcomes should have an impact on both my own research and on a higher policy level. I would ensure to both incorporate them into my own research and to disseminate them broadly, for instance in scientific publications and conferences within my field. If possible, I would also engage in more public debates about the findings from the workshop.

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Further capacity development and the EBRAINS community space

Here you can find links to relevant teaching modules – our Capacity Development Modules – on Public Engagement and to the EBRAINS Community Space, where you can network with other brain researchers.

OR go directly to Publications on the top of this page to find academic articles on Ethics & Society

Acknowledgements:

Thank you to Lise Bitsch and Nicklas Bang Bådum for your contributions to the text, video-script and quiz on Public Engagement.