Deep dives into university research practices around the world, including supervision, community engagement, funding and publication.

Research excellence

Randomised control trials (RCTs) are well known for the part they play in developing life-saving medical treatments. In the past year alone, RCTs have played a significant role in all our lives, of course, by testing the efficacy of vaccinations that have now been administered to millions of people across the world. What people may not know is that the RCT is also one of the most widely used methods for the evaluation of social policies. And right now, they are at the heart of an ethical debate.There is no doubt that the use of RCTs to evaluate social policies has significantly improved lives. In 2019, Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer were awarded the Nobel prize for economics for their “experimental approach to alleviating global poverty”. Their studies, and those of their co-authors, have generated invaluable evidence on topics as diverse as the impacts of free mosquito nets on health, the effects of microcredit on poverty and the merits of different educational interventions for low-income students. However, as more and more people take part in RCTs, the ethics of this research methodology is coming under increasing scrutiny.The basic premise of RCTs is simple: the outcomes of a group receiving a “treatment” (the policy being tested) are compared against the outcomes of a group receiving no treatment (the control group). Crucially, it is entirely random whether an individual is assigned to the treatment or the control group. Random assignment enables researchers to produce the strongest possible evidence on the impacts of the policy. This evidence will later be used to improve policy design and so will benefit the future recipients of the policy. However, random assignment is not ideal from the point of view of the people who take part in the trial itself: some people will receive no treatment when a treatment could be beneficial to them, while others may receive a treatment that has no effect on them or is even harmful.This tension between the welfare of study participants and the need to generate the best possible policy evidence creates an ethical dilemma. Is it right, for example, to withhold cash incentives from poor workers, or educational improvements from impoverished children, when such interventions are likely to be beneficial for them? Or, when an NGO cannot help an entire population, is it ethically justifiable to distribute the scarce programme slots at random, rather than offering them to those who are likely to benefit the most? Striking the right balance between collecting data that could improve the lives of many and improving the welfare of trial participants is not always easy.These concerns have led some to doubt that RCTs can ever be ethically justifiable. There is considerable opposition to their use among some scholars. But I think that, rather than giving up on RCTs altogether, we need to focus on developing this powerful research method to address the ethical controversies that surround it.&nbsp;My co-authors and I have developed an algorithm that enables researchers to balance their desire to generate the best possible evidence of a policy’s effects with their objective to increase the welfare of the people taking part in the study. Taking advantage of the fact that studies are often performed using multiple cohorts of individuals, the algorithm learns over time what interventions work best for different types of people and then assigns participants to the treatment group that is most likely to benefit them. Importantly, the algorithm also assigns a minimum share of the sample to each treatment randomly, so as not to compromise the study’s ability to generate high-quality evidence.We tested the algorithm in a field experiment designed to help Syrian refugees in Jordan find work – with intriguing results. Our experiment offered three interventions: a small cash transfer; job search advice; and motivational support. In our setting, the cash transfer proved to be the most successful intervention for helping refugees into employment. Job search advice and motivational support had weaker impacts.Surprisingly, we found that the timing, as well as the type, of the intervention was very important. One month after treatment, none of the interventions we tried had an effect, while the effects of cash transfers became visible two months after the cash was disbursed.We were able to show that, when the algorithm is set up to maximise employment two months after treatment, it can increase the share of refugees in work by 80 per cent − a very large effect. On the other hand, the algorithm has limited benefits when it is set up to maximise employment one month after treatment. These results showcase the potential of our new method, but also the importance of understanding the likely timing and nature of the changes one wants to bring about.RCTs for policy evaluation are here to stay, but their ethical challenges needn’t be. Our study shows that it is possible to generate high-quality data while also improving the welfare of the people taking part in our studies, that we can make research more ethical without compromising its quality, and that finding more ways to reconcile ethics and academic rigour is an exciting future research agenda.Stefano Caria is associate professor of economics at the University of Warwick and an affiliate of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab.If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week,&nbsp;sign up for the Campus&nbsp;newsletter.

The debate on the ethics of randomised control trials isn’t getting us anywhere – it’s time for solutions, says Stefano Caria

We can make research more ethical without compromising its quality

Three PhD students share tips for embracing an interdisciplinary approach to research from the start of one’s academic career to aid progress towards tackling the Sustainable Development Goals 

Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals: investing in early career interdisciplinarity 

Research often lacks full transparency and reproducibility, and poor research practices are increasingly picked up by the public, which is undermining trust in academia. Open research is research conducted with full transparency, in its design, methods and communication of outputs. Research practices that are “open” improve research quality and integrity, reuse by others and value for money. They increase public trust in research and protect against fraud.Open research is an area that most, if not all, agree is important. However, creating a culture of openness can be challenging, especially with many competing demands and practical challenges. For instance, how many of your institution’s research outputs share the supporting data and code? Do your researchers always know how to identify and avoid questionable research practices?Achieving greater openness requires long-term culture change. Here are eight key actions your university can take to stimulate that process.1. Join or establish a national reproducibility networkSince the UK Reproducibility Network (UKRN) was founded, national reproducibility networks have been established in Australia, Germany, Slovakia and Switzerland, and the community is expanding. A reproducibility network is a peer-led consortium that promotes rigorous research practices through training and research improvement activities and dissemination of best practice and works with stakeholders to coordinate efforts across the sector.Membership of the network requires the appointment of a senior academic as institutional lead, who reports to the pro vice-chancellor for research or equivalent and makes a minimum commitment of one day per week to the role. This ensures that open research has visible, high-level leadership within and outside the institution. If you do not have a national reproducibility network, consider setting one&nbsp;up.2. Establish an open research working groupThe working group should have the support of the pro vice-chancellor for research, or their equivalent, and should be led by a senior open research champion. It&nbsp;should include representation from your university’s professional services and the research community. The UKRN coordinates a&nbsp;network of open research working groups and provides guidance on how to set one&nbsp;up.3. Create an action planAn action plan, encompassing some of the actions proposed here and setting out measurable objectives to be achieved over a defined period, can give strategic direction to institutional effort. It can be a vehicle for securing engagement with open research objectives, bringing stakeholders and activities into strategic alignment, and obtaining resource to support activities.4. Publish an open research statementA number of UK universities have adopted statements of commitment to the principles and aims of open research. These articulate strategic objectives for the institution as a whole and expectations of researchers, and may be supported by explanatory information, links to relevant policies and practical guidance on using open practices. The process of developing and consulting on a statement brings an opportunity to engage the research community and secure buy-in from key stakeholders.5. Run an open research competitionAn open research award can celebrate best practice and incentivise researchers to identify and value their own open practices. Several universities have organised such competitions, and the UKRN has published a primer on running an open research award competition.6. Develop an open research champions networkInstitutions can cultivate allies in the research community who model good practice, amplify communications and propagate knowledge and skills within local networks. Examples of institutional programmes include the Cambridge Data Champions, Reading’s Open Research Champions, and York’s Open Research Advocates network. In the Netherlands, an Open Science Communities network has evolved and is spreading internationally. Champions can be supported with funding for activities, such as organising workshops and training, attending courses and events, and participating in open-research-related projects.7. Develop support for research software engineeringProgramming is widely used in research to generate, process and analyse data, and is often critical to reproducibility, but many researchers lack formal training in how to use software or support from trained professionals, with consequences for research quality. In recent years, institutions have established research software engineering support and training for researchers. In the UK, the Society for Research Software Engineering works to increase software skills in research and to champion the role of research software engineer.8. Introduce open research criteria into recruitment, promotion, assessment and reward processesReforming academic systems to incentivise the use of open practices is critical. Recruitment, advancement and reward frameworks should enable researchers to evidence use of open practices, and open research should be built into research planning and monitoring. Introducing open research criteria into systems and processes will be a substantive project that needs to be led at the highest level.Frameworks that might be adapted for institutional use include the UKRN hiring policies certification scheme and the European Union’s Open Science Career Assessment Matrix (OS-CAM), a modified version of which has recently been proposed as a national assessment framework in Norway.The measures we outline here will not transform things overnight, but ongoing strategic action by institutions can gradually bring about the change in research culture that will drive up quality, integrity and reuse.Parveen Yaqoob is pro vice-chancellor (research and innovation) and Robert Darby is research data manager, both at the University of Reading.If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week,&nbsp;sign up for the Campus&nbsp;newsletter.

Parveen Yaqoob and Robert Darby share eight actions institutions can take to foster a culture of research that is more accessible, transparent and reproducible

Eight ways your university can make research culture more open

We all understand the value of collaboration. New experiences and perspectives from colleagues and students help to challenge our ways of thinking, driving us to create and share knowledge in more impactful ways. But collaborating with people outside your university sphere can add equal, and perhaps even more, value.Public engagement spans activities from inspiring audiences through talks, exhibitions or festivals; consulting through surveys, focus groups or citizen juries; or shared decision-making and working with the public as partners.If you’re interested in public engagement but you’re not sure how to get started, here are six main considerations:1. Aim for mutual benefitInvolving (the most relevant) public audiences in your work can be incredibly rewarding for everyone involved. It can:increase the likelihood that your research translates into real-life benefitsprovide everyone involved with new skills, networks, knowledge and experiencesgive agency and influence to people often excluded from the higher education and research ecosystemsimprove the transparency and accountability of your researchenrich your students’ learning experience with new or alternative perspectives.Spend time at the start establishing the purpose. What are you trying to achieve? What’s in it for everyone involved? Ideally, all parties should walk away feeling as if they’ve gained something from the experience.2. Identify whoOnce you have your objective, the next step is identifying your audience. Importantly, there is no such thing as “the general public”. Yoga teachers, people with arthritis, musicians, local residents, young carers, cyclists – each group is a community formed around an&nbsp;interest, a&nbsp;place, an&nbsp;identity or an&nbsp;experience. Even if you truly believe that everyone will have a&nbsp;vested interest in your work, which is unlikely, the more focused you can be here, the more likely you are to achieve your goals.3. Identify howWith your purpose and audience clearly defined, you’re ready to choose your method. Here are examples for inspiration:lectures, films, exhibitions and panel eventswebsites, podcasts, apps and gamessurveys, focus groups, one-to-one conversations and workshopsperformances, hands-on activities and creative eventscollaborative research, citizen science and lived-experience panels.People often jump to the method first – “I&nbsp;want to make a podcast” – but this can lead to your choosing something that doesn’t work for your audience or won’t help you achieve your goal. The time, resources and expertise you have available will influence your choice here, too.4. Plan in evaluation from the startHow will you know if your engagement has been successful? It’s not always possible to measure the impact of your public engagement – particularly if&nbsp;you start off small – so you may want to evaluate the design or delivery instead.Design: Was the method appropriate? Did you reach your audience? Were they able to take part? Did they enjoy the experience?Delivery: Did the activity go ahead? Did the people you wanted to reach attend? How many? Who were they? Did you have enough resources, time and support?Impact: What changed as a result of your engagement? This might be research methods or priorities; sign-ups to an event or newsletter; new lessons or subsequent actions.For a thorough breakdown of evaluating public engagement, have a look at our evaluation toolkit.5. Build mutual trust, respect and expectationsEffective public engagement is often built on a foundation of honest, open and respectful communication. The people with whom you engage – whether that’s parents at a science festival, artists in a performance, or people living with dementia on an advisory group – all have knowledge and expertise that you don’t have. Their time and contributions should be valued as equal to your own.With this in mind:it’s absolutely fine to start small and learn about public engagement as you go, as long as you have respect for those involved – it can take years to&nbsp;build trust, particularly with large organisations such as universities, and just one bad experience to break that downconsider the language you use, and test materials with a critical friend in advanceif you’re consulting or collaborating with the public, consider ways to recognise their contribution, such as incentives, one-off payments, paid positions, fellowships, co-authorship or external acknowledgements.6. Ask for helpMany universities have public engagement teams who can help you to develop your ideas (for example, the centre for public engagement’s support includes one-to-one advice, internal funding, and training). Most research councils and large funders have public-engagement funding and support available, too.Looking to find out more? These resources will get you started:National Coordinating Centre for Public EngagementPublic Engagement at UKRINIHR Centre for Engagement &amp; DisseminationEmily Burns is director of the Centre for Public Engagement at Queen Mary University of London.If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week, sign up for the Campus newsletter.

Public engagement and collaboration to enhance your research

How can academics shape research around mutually beneficial public engagement and collaboration? Emily Burns outlines the key considerations 

Enhance your research through public engagement and collaboration 

Many academics bring their valuable research into the classroom. The challenge is for them to frame and communicate their findings, ideas or even professional practices in a format that is accessible to students as non-experts. But if they succeed in doing this, the contribution from a diverse study body through the teaching process can broaden, enrich, stimulate and further inform the research.

The following tips are designed to help academics bring their research into the classroom order to boost the learning experience and also to improve their own work:

1. Highlight the universal values of research

The classroom is an ideal setting to shed light on the theoretical implications and practical benefits of detailed research projects. Teaching allows academics to illustrate why their highly specialised work has significance to broader society and why students and citizens should care about it.

For instance, in my study comparing the effect of political trust in Hong Kong and Singapore, as two hybrid regimes, in coping with the pandemic, I&nbsp;argue that long-term citizens, who have resided in the areas for some time before the Covid outbreak, generally have greater discontent towards government. This is expressed through their non-compliance with policies and measures, which hinder the effectiveness of pandemic control. Using the public health crisis as an entry point, this evidence-based study allows me to shed light on the dynamic interplay between the government and citizens, as well as essential governance qualities that help to maintain long-term development of regimes.

Academics should strive to present or adapt their specialised knowledge so it can be applicable to everyday situations. They should try to extract the academic concepts and technical language from the research papers and journals and contextualise them in a way that is accessible and relevant to students.

2. Present a strong research case 

Present your research projects as a whole in a way that flows seamlessly, from the initial challenge or question posed, to the set-up, design, implementation and results. Create a clear narrative around the project that makes it easy for your students to follow each step and the reasoning behind it. This process will help you improve the clarity, strength and logic of your research case and conclusions.

Academics are often guilty of weighing down their arguments with too much jargon and specialised terminology, which can mean students disengage. Keep your language simple, minimising technical terms, as if presenting to a general audience. Communicating complex ideas and concepts clearly and concisely is a challenge, but doing so is a useful exercise that will help you organise and streamline thoughts – and hone your communication skills.

For a research project comparing high-performing learning systems around the world, I&nbsp;am carrying out a comprehensive review of Hong Kong’s learning system, which involves changes and continuities over decades, as well dozens of interrelated influencing factors. The challenge is how to maintain a balance between breadth and depth. In the classroom, I&nbsp;need to introduce the system to those without prior knowledge as well as providing new perspectives for those who are highly familiar with the system. This preparation is an opportunity to revisit competing threads and clarify my thoughts.

3. Connect the dots within your discipline 

Effective teaching requires clear articulation of how different areas and topics within a discipline are interconnected. To achieve this when teaching a curriculum, academics need to step back from their specialised focus and recontextualise their knowledge within a wider scope. While research can have a particular focus, the learning experience for students should remain broad and comprehensive.

This leaves academics with no room for cutting corners as they must stay abreast of developments beyond their immediate study focus and ensure their relevance in the related fields. Academics need to prepare and collate effective illustrations and explanations that connect the dots between their research and other interrelated topics.

4. Explore the limits and possibilities of research 

Class preparation can help academics improve their own understanding of the background and context of their research. It can even help link their speciality to topics and approaches that previously seemed irrelevant and show how their specific ideas fit into the larger picture. The best, most innovative ideas often emerge out of the gaps between disciplines, when academics have pushed their thinking to the fringes of their specialism where it interacts with other ideas.

It is often in the process of explaining an existing concept to others that academics realise that current approaches, theories or paradigms are insufficient or inappropriate. This can pave the way for more sophisticated studies. Academics cannot merely do it once and leave, but need to constantly reinvent their thinking so that they stay at the leading edge in their research.

When I was preparing for a class on the development of higher education, I&nbsp;dug into the literature and found that the current direction of higher education curriculum design was lagging behind wider societal changes, responding rather than foreseeing.

Educators should nonetheless find ways to provide students with the tools to imagine the future ever-changing world, to take current or potential problems to the extreme, and to develop and even practise solutions that might tackle those problems. This resulted in my writing a paper about how the higher education sector should contribute to forward-looking curricula.

5. Use outsiders to refine research instruments and results 

Expand the practice of peer review to students. Academics subject their research ideas to stringent scrutiny and public criticism from fellow scholars, so why not use the same practice within the classroom?

The scrutiny, feedback, comments, questions and critiques that students offer can be constructively critical or even novel and innovative. By responding to students’ feedback and sharing ideas for discussion, academics can sharpen new areas of enquiry, initiate untested questions, create new methodologies, identify flaws in analytical approaches, or test the reliability and validity of concepts that they are developing. All these can help academics to shape a more methodologically rigorous and theoretically sound research.

Adrian Man-Ho Lam is a course tutor in the department of politics and public administration and guest lecturer in the Faculty of Education at the University of Hong Kong.

Adrian Lam offers tips on how academics can use their teaching to refine, enrich and expand their research methods

How to refine, enrich and expand research through teaching practices

The pandemic has seen research yield some spectacular results. The most obvious has been the research leading to the production of the Covid vaccine. But this does not mean the UK’s research response has been all about STEM.If that wasn’t obvious before, it has become obvious now that vaccine hesitancy has mounted up the national agenda. Why do conspiracy theories arise? Why do some people, but not others, find them credible, and how do you stop them?A little less obviously, in the age of Instagram and the mobile phone, there’s no reason to expect diaspora communities in the UK to take their public health information from official UK sources when they can access global media in their own language. And yet some of those diaspora communities have included those most at risk from Covid-19. So, we need deep linguistic and cultural knowledge to understand what information those communities are receiving, whether it is reliable, and if it isn’t, how to make sure more reliable information reaches them instead.Resource collection: Creativity in higher educationHow to show employers the value in humanities and create internship opportunitiesConnecting research and humanities through creative collaborationsThis illustrates why the arts and humanities component of the overall UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) response to Covid-19 is so important; between the vaccine and good public health outcomes lie public health information and public attitudes, including whether people see that information as trustworthy. That area is covered by the arts and humanities.Responding to the pandemic with arts and humanities researchOf course, that’s not all there is to the arts and humanities response to the pandemic: the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), part of UKRI, has funded a large number of projects during this time – for example, on the effects of lockdown on the arts and cultural sector and on ways of mitigating them, be it technologies to enable dancers to rehearse together without occupying the same space, or the positive effect on mental health of digital engagement with culture.An important lesson lies in these examples. Some people may worry that the pandemic response was about dropping everything we had been doing before and suddenly striking out in a new “applied” direction. On the contrary, the trio of:creative industries, as in our Creative Industries Clusters Programme, which runs from the screen industries and digital storytelling to fashion and video gamesdigital access to culture through projects such as Towards a National Collectionaccess to culture’s role in mental health and well-beinghave been central themes of AHRC strategic programming for a while now.We, and the researchers we fund, were able to respond rapidly to the pandemic because of those strategic investments, and our response has in turn taught us something about how to take those strategic investments forward.The pandemic response is admittedly only one aspect of AHRC’s challenge-led research, and there are others, but it shows how different strands of challenge-led research can come together if they need to.Funding criteria for arts and humanities research: challenge, impact and discoverySo, should arts and humanities researchers think that they will only be able to get their work funded if their work is challenge-led? No. Nor is that true if the question is rephrased as about commercial benefit, even though our investments in the creative industries have leveraged impressive quantities of private sector match funding and we plan to intensify commercialisation activity in the coming year. But funds aren’t directed solely towards contemporary challenges any more than they are towards commercialisation. There are fellowships and open call schemes, and these are completely open as to topic, because we are committed to funding outstanding work that helps us understand ourselves across a huge range of subjects.In addition, the dual support system directs public funds to research via two routes – on the one hand, the research councils and on the other, the Research Excellence Framework (REF). Arts and humanities research is less reliant on research council funding than any other field, with about 70 per cent of the public funds flowing to arts and humanities research coming from quality rated (QR) research funding. About 25 per cent of a department’s overall REF performance will rely on impact but, by the same token, a much larger proportion of it won’t – which means that whatever AHRC does, there is significant scope within the current funding regime for arts and humanities academics to pursue discovery as opposed to more impact- or challenge-led research.And there is wisdom in that: we need a broad base of basic research in the arts and humanities, in part so we are ready to respond to the next big challenge, because we don’t always know what the next big challenge is going to be.Edward Harcourt is director of research, strategy and innovation for the Arts and Humanities Research Council, part of UK Research and Innovation.If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week,&nbsp;sign up for the Campus newsletter.

Finding arts and humanities funding post-pandemic 

Edward Harcourt on why the arts and humanities are vital to tackling societal challenges and what funding streams are available to research within these disciplines 

The arts and humanities have not been forgotten: finding funding post-pandemic 

Universities, as civic institutions, have a moral duty to support their communities of place, interest, identity or experience – locally, regionally, nationally and internationally. One way they can do this is through public engagement. It can seem difficult to prioritise public engagement when there are so many other calls on your time, but there are two key points to bear in mind:Public engagement is more important than you might think.&nbsp;Public engagement is easier than you might think.Public engagement is important because propagating and democratising knowledge confers so many benefits on wider society. It improves health and well-being by nurturing hobbies and interests, offering new experiences&nbsp;and changing behaviour. It supports personal resilience by diversifying life experience, widening horizons and helping achieve personal goals. It boosts economic resilience by instilling knowledge, skills and ways of thinking, providing volunteering opportunities and raising aspirations. It builds social capital by extending community-university networks and increasing appetites for learning, and it strengthens civil society by developing skills in discussion and debate, supporting informed decision-making and giving people the opportunity to devise and participate in research themselves.Public engagement benefits researchers and universities by extending research networks and providing different perspectives. It develops transferable skills in researchers, boosts self-esteem and enhances the public reputation of the university. Public engagement contributes to the research excellence framework&nbsp;(REF) and knowledge exchange framework&nbsp;(KEF), which contribute to universities’ reputations and their income, and supports student recruitment.Whether your primary role is research, teaching&nbsp;or supporting public engagers, here are key tips based on my experience with PEARL&nbsp;(Public Engagement for All with Research at Lincoln), which we set up with UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) funding to enhance public engagement across the university. These actions can be applied at every level, from individuals to institutions.Get&nbsp;startedEstablish in your own mind what you want your public engagement to achieve and why. This helps plan and evaluate more effectively.&nbsp;Get help – sign up for any public engagement training at your university and check out the National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement (NCCPE) website.&nbsp;Don’t be afraid to start small. Even talking to friends about one aspect of your work practises public engagement as it builds fluency. Taking part in on-campus research festivals saves you finding your own audience, while contributing an activity to a national initiative such as Pint of Science or Being Human will come with ready-made PR.Think&nbsp;about your audienceConsider what your audience is likely to want or expect. Thinking about who will participate will help you refine your ideas and pitch your activity.&nbsp;Enjoy your audience and pay attention to them. They will value the authenticity of connecting with people who really are the experts and will offer you different and new perspectives. Asking for a show of hands in response to a couple of opening questions gets your audience engaging with you right from the start.Look for new audiences. These might be groups with interests in your subject (such as&nbsp;environmental groups, history societies etc) or organisations like U3A (University of the Third Age), which has local groups nationwide with a remarkably eclectic range of interests. Making a virtue of recent necessity, online engagement is now easy and widely accepted.Build&nbsp;support networksConnect with others – it’s insightful, inspiring and encouraging to share ideas and experiences with others involved in public engagement.&nbsp;Work across disciplinary boundaries – there’s huge potential in, for example, life scientists collaborating with performing artists to come up with exciting new ways of sharing knowledge.Involve people from different career stages and tracks. Students can contribute newly minted freshness and enthusiasm, senior researchers can provide confidence underpinned by decades of accumulated knowledge, staff heavily involved in teaching have honed communication skills.As you gain experienceTry new approaches, especially anything that turns one-way dissemination into two-way conversation or sustainable participation – from including polls in an online talk to asking people to co-produce research.&nbsp;Remember that public engagement can take place anywhere – indoors, outdoors, on campus, in the high street or in the back of beyond, on air or online. Think creatively.Be open-minded about taking up offers of help. The most important asset is enthusiasm – everything else can be learned!Capture the impactRecord the outcomes of your engagement. This will show whether you achieved your aims and help identify any improvements needed. It will also show others what you have achieved, which is hugely important for you and for the university. Any information, even a simple headcount, is useful, but it’s even better if supplemented by qualitative quotes from visitors’ books or quantitative statistics from feedback forms. Responses collected before and after the activity can show the difference it’s made, but such intensive data collection can be counterproductive – no one likes feeling like a lab rat when they are enjoying indulging their curiosity. Whatever approach you use, think what you want to be able to say about your activity’s outcomes, and draft your questions accordingly.&nbsp;Formally recognise and reward public engagement – include public engagement categories in workloading, staff merit programmes and student awards.Celebrate your public engagement successes within and beyond the university – in departmental meetings, in annual reports, online and in media communications – and even in research articles. It’s good news for everyone and will inspire others – completing a virtuous circle.Carenza Lewis is&nbsp;professor for the public understanding of research at the University of Lincoln.If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week, sign up for the Campus newsletter.

Carenza Lewis shares a step-by-step guide for embedding public engagement into your institution’s research and teaching 

How to embed public engagement into your teaching and research activities 

All universities have a responsibility to engage with and support the communities in which they are located. This can be done in many ways but a key tool in any university’s repertoire is its research.So, how can universities shape research projects to ensure benefits are felt by local communities? One way is by inviting community participation in research projects that&nbsp;seek to address key issues or challenges faced by local people and groups.These will vary according to the institution’s&nbsp;remit and its locality. So, the starting point for any university or academic looking to develop such a project must be a thorough understanding of local issues or major challenges faced by local people.Shaping research to community needsUse existing networks: When initiating new community-university research partnerships it can be helpful to draw upon existing research networks that have connections to targeted groups within the community. The Our Health programme, which aims to reduce health inequalities through community-based participatory research, has built upon relationships that have emerged out of associated clinical research grants. Doing this not only reduces the initial workload in terms of seeking out community partners but it almost always leads to a “natural fit”&nbsp;around shared research interests and long-term goals.Clarify the research focus:&nbsp;To effectively&nbsp;shape&nbsp;your&nbsp;research to respond to community needs, it is important to be clear about what, and how, you are seeking to investigate. The Our Health team focuses on research related to health and well-being. We work in partnership with socio-economically disadvantaged communities to improve health literacy through participatory research and empower patient and community groups to take greater control of their own health. By establishing the overall aim of the community engagement and understanding the research methods involved in achieving that aim, you will be better placed to keep the community engagement on track and participants working as a cohesive, strong and motivated research team.Use existing resources: A valuable starting point for any academic or practitioner who seeks to understand community needs around health and well-being would be resources such as the James Lind Alliance (JLA), which has&nbsp;useful guidelines for forming and working in research priority-setting partnerships. The Our Health team were guided by the evidence base the JLA had compiled of health-related research questions posed by the wider public, as well as conducting our own focus groups with local community groups to hear directly what research needs they felt were important and would want to participate in.Make it interdisciplinaryWe have shown through a qualitative case study of the Our Health programme that interdisciplinarity enhances community-based participatory research processes by providing flexibility and more research solutions and options through the range of disciplinary knowledge. When interdisciplinarity crossed a wide range of disciplines from the sciences and social sciences the shared learning environment provided was particularly rich. We would encourage others who are interested in setting up their own community-based participatory research programmes to harness the power of interdisciplinary collaboration. It is possible to facilitate meaningful local change by bringing together teams of researchers and mixed-level students from across the university to work on university-community research partnerships.Embed community research into curriculaStudents participate in these projects because they want rich experiential learning and skills training. They want to make a difference in the communities in which they live and study. We have found that students report gaining&nbsp;confidence in conducting research, in working outside their disciplines and engaging with professionals and the wider public. To offer these experiences to a wide and diverse student body and maximise impact, these opportunities should be embedded within the curriculum with sufficient financial and staffing support. Think long termDeveloping community-university research partnerships takes time. If you want to reap the many benefits that these partnerships offer, you need to think and plan for the long term. The research relationships need to be fostered and respected and this means that all participants need to commit their time and energy to ensuring the relationships remain healthy and productive.The real-world research questions presented by community-based research&nbsp;are complex and often problematic. Unpacking questions of this complexity may take several years but doing so&nbsp;provides potent, long-term learning experiences for community partners and students. The length of time it takes to answer community-posed questions and the length of university programmes means that students come and go from teams. This can be a challenge in terms of building&nbsp;relationships  between community partners and students. To mitigate this, try to ensure there is a constant, core team of academic staff.&nbsp;This will allow a natural student and community partner turnover to occur without disrupting the overall programme.Helen Szoor-McEIhinney is Our Health programme lead, Alette Willis is senior lecturer in health in social science, and Liam Gilchrist is Our Health research associate, all at the University of Edinburgh.If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week,&nbsp;sign up for the Campus newsletter.&nbsp;

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