The LERU Public Engagement Focus Group Launches New Scholarly Blog “Forging Connections: Public Engagement in Europe and Beyond.”
Public Engagement describes the myriad ways in which the activity and benefits of higher education and research can be shared with the public. By showcasing Public Engagement communities from a number of LERU universities, these blogs aim to ignite conversations around how Public Engagement can be embedded within LERU member organisations – and elsewhere – in meaningful and practical ways.
About LERU
LERU was founded in 2002 as an association of research-intensive universities sharing the values of high-quality teaching in an environment of internationally competitive research. Counting 24 members, the network brings together representatives to work on LERU policy development and mutual learning in several areas and on topics such as Open Science.
LERU Open Science Ambassadors
LERU has 22 Open Science Ambassadors sharing good practices and preparing combined actions to stimulate the progress of Open Science. The Open Science Ambassadors formed a focus group on Public Engagement in 2022 under the lead of Open Science Ambassador Prof. Dr. Joos Vandewalle (KU Leuven) to bring together experts and practitioners on Public Engagement of the LERU universities. Since its inception in early 2022, one of the main objectives of the focus group has been to share best practice in engaging the public at a local level, with approaches covering a broad spectrum from science festivals to research funding and citizen science.
The LERU Public Engagement Focus Group
The LERU Public Engagement Focus Group is composed of representatives from across LERU member universities including Trinity College Dublin. Members of the editorial board draw from a wide array of subjects across the Arts and Social Sciences as STEM. These include English, Ancient History, Conflict Studies, Visual Arts, Sociology and Journalism, and International and Political History, alongside Engineering, Physics, Ecology and Chemistry. The blog posts, which are each written by members of the board, reflect their expertise in these areas and discuss how Public Engagement can be embedded within LERU member organisations and elsewhere, in meaningful and practical ways.
“Forging Connections: Public Engagement in Europe and Beyond.”
The 12 articles, released throughout the year, will provide LERU member organisations with accessible and practical ways to further embed Public Engagement approaches in their everyday research activities. It will provide tools and inspiring examples to stimulate Public Engagement, all the while establishing and advancing commonly agreed-upon standards. The team wants to highlight that this is an exploratory conversation between representatives from different LERU universities on what Public Engagement is across the EU and how it is experienced in practice.
The LERU Public Engagement Focus Group looks forward to entering into much-needed dialogues on Public Engagement with colleagues, citizen scientists, and the broader public across Europe and beyond. As such, they welcome responses to the forthcoming posts and hope to expand the blog to incorporate further voices into the conversation as the series progresses. This first series of blogs is edited by Drs Lauren Gould and Saskia Stevens, Associate Professors and Public Engagement Fellows at Utrecht University.
- Profile by Dr Sarah Cullen