Edinburgh Beltane Public Engagement Challenge Call for Applications

Background

The Beacons for Public Engagement aim to promote a culture change in universities, assisting staff and students to engage with the public. The Edinburgh Beltane recognises that this cultural shift has to come from within our partner institutions. The Public Engagement Challenge will enable our partners to test different pubic engagement methods and culture change strategies, share their learning and celebrate their successes.

Open Call

Staff and students of our 19 partner institutions are invited to put forward their ideas for:

Pilot Public Engagement Projects Pilot Cultural Change Projects Propose an event or activity which Propose a project which will increase the demonstrates best practice in public profile of public engagement and encourage engagement, or represents an innovative greater participation in public engagement of means of engaging the public with research research within our partner Higher Education relevant to public policy. and Research Institutions.

A proposal should include details of a single pilot Public Engagement Project or pilot Cultural Change Project. This proposal will be assessed by a panel drawn from the partnership, and projects will be chosen based on the quality of ideas and applications. We expect to award up to 6 Public Engagement Bursaries (up to £1500 each) and up to 6 Cultural Change Project Grants (up to £1000 each).

The deadline for proposals is 12 noon Monday 07/12/2009.

Projects must take place prior to July 2010 with a case study report to be submitted as soon as possible thereafter. This report will be judged, and the individual(s) who organised the project which is considered to have been of the highest quality and made the most significant impact will receive an award of £2000 to repeat their event or continue their project in the future. The award will be made at the next Edinburgh Beltane Beacon Annual Gathering in September 2010.

Application forms are available from the Edinburgh Beltane team at [email protected] , or online at: www.edinburghbeltane.net .

Eligibility

Staff and students currently employed by, or studying at, one of the nineteen partner institutions are eligible to apply for funds. (Our partners are: The University of Edinburgh, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh Napier University, University of Highlands and Islands Millennium Institute, Edinburgh College of Art, Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh Consortium for Rural Research, Edinburgh International Science Festival, Global Science Network, National Museums Scotland, Optos plc, Our Dynamic Earth, Roslin Institute, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, Royal Observatory Edinburgh Visitor Centre, The Herald, The Royal Society of Edinburgh, The Sutton Trust, Vitae ).

Beacons for Public Engagement The Edinburgh Beltane Beacon for Public Engagement funded by the UK funding councils, E: [email protected] T: 0131 650 4874/5 Research Councils UK and the Wellcome Trust www.edinburghbeltane.net

Expected Outcomes

Examples of suitable activities for consideration would include, but are not limited to:

Public Engagement Projects • A dialogue event with policy makers and public meeting to examine a current public policy issue, e.g. Sustainability, Health and Community Care, Life and Food Sciences, Public safety etc. • Running a series of events targeting hard-to-reach audiences. • Working with a community so their opinions can direct research outcomes which will then be implemented in public policy activities.

Cultural Change Projects • Creating a network forum for staff to share public engagement experience and best practice. • Establishing a means of celebrating excellence in public engagement of research within our partner Higher Education and Research Institutions. • Creating sustainable opportunities for researchers and the public to interact on a regular basis.

Successful applicants will be expected to use the pilot projects to create a proof of concept and identify suitable funding sources for long term sustainability of the projects.

Pilot Project Criteria

Projects considered for pilot funding will meet some or all of the following criteria:

Public Engagement Projects Cultural Change Projects • Community involvement and benefits • Cross-discipline events/activities • Timeliness • Cross-partner events/activities • Innovation • Contributions in kind including hosting at • Research relevant to public policy a partner institution • Cross-discipline events/activities • Innovation • Cross-partner events/activities • Public engagement partners involvement • Contributions in kind including hosting at and support a partner institution • Formative evaluation and dissemination • Public engagement partners involvement strategy and support • Sustainability of project, both in terms of • Formative evaluation and dissemination project continuation and capacity to strategy transfer the concept to other partner • Funding leverage potential institutions • Potential to feed into public policy making process

Future calls for this scheme are planned for: August 2010 for projects running between November 2010 and August 2011; and April 2011 for projects running between June 2011 and April 2012 watch out for further details in our e-bulletin, website and our next newsletter.