Public Engagement
Public engagement is at the heart of much of Public & Science Sweden’s work, and we work actively with different forms of public engagement in both national and international projects.
What is Public Engagement?
Public engagement in Science is a concept that encompasses a wide range of collaborative activities between organisations, researchers and their stakeholders/partners, as well as society at large. The concept is also a part of open science as it involves an active exchange and mutual relationship between researchers and stakeholders to make science more accessible.
Public Engagement is a term that is widely used in a variety of different sectors and organisations. The National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement (NCCPE) in the UK defines public engagement in the following way:
Public engagement is a two-way process, involving interaction and listening, with the goal of generating mutual benefit.
Mutual benefit and opportunities for mutual learning between researchers and the general public are an important part. Public engagement is also a much more active and engaged approach than, for example, outreach.
Different types of public engagement
Public engagement can take many different forms. It can be about involving the public in research, for example, through co-creation activities with end users, citizen science, public dialogues and patient involvement.
It can also include collaborations in which researchers, students and civil society work together on research projects or involve different sectors e.g. science and art. Whilst the aims behind these approaches and the processes are different, what they all have in common is a description of an aspiration to better connect the work and research of higher education institutions with research institutes, companies and society.
Why public engagement?
There are several reasons to undertake public engagement.
- creating collaborative opportunities for different organisations to participate in the development of society, both in terms of knowledge and capacity-building.
- increasing the understanding of the cultural relevance of science in society and creating opportunities for people to discuss and participate in research.
- embracing multiple perspectives and multi-disciplinary knowledge to make research more meaningful and achieve scientific progress.
- learn from each other, share knowledge, develop new skills as well as gain new insights, ideas, or inspiration for new research projects.
Public & Science Sweden works to promote dialogue and openness between researchers and the public. So almost everything we do consists of different forms of public engagement.
- Involve the public or stakeholders directly in the research process through Citizen Science.
- Strengthen the relationship between researchers and the public through dialogue seminars and Science & Society events
- Engage the public in research through science cafés, Science Shops, interactive seminars and science festivals.
- Drive and participate in various types of collaborative research and communication projects.
All of these activities have the common goal of connecting and promoting mutual exchange between research and society.
