I recently heard a keynote talk by Sophie Duncan, the Deputy Director of the National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement, and was really impressed by her enthusiasm for embedding outreach and engagement at every stage of research. Sophie pointed out that there are a number of problems with public engagement as it stands:

1. There can be a lack of support and reward for good engagement within departments.
2. Outreach tends to be centred on the academic, rather than on the public.
3. Groups outside of academia tend not to pro-actively seek academic collaborators.Read More »