Browse or search for courses

This session will help researchers to deepen their engagement with policymakers. It will focus on science and technology but will be of relevance to all researchers including those in arts, humanities and social sciences. Led by Nicky Buckley (Centre for Science and Policy (CSaP)) and Owen Garling (Bennett Institute for Public Policy), it will provide examples of successful partnership projects, and explore funding opportunities for collaboration with policymakers. Researchers will learn how to best disseminate their research in formats most favoured by policymakers and hear about the support available for becoming more policy-engaged. This will be a practical and interactive session, with the opportunity to ask questions and meet colleagues from across the University.

This is an in-person event.

This training will introduce you to the world of visual communication. We will look at visualising data versus visualising abstract concepts and think about appropriateness! How can you simplify a huge body of research into something that is visually enticing to people outside of your field? In this training you will learn how to create visual metaphors that illustrate your research as well as the basics of frame by frame and stop motion animation so that you may turn these illustrations into short animated gifs.

Have you ever wanted to get creative with your research? To discover how writing can bring a new perspective to your work? How your words can engage with new audiences about the academic research that you are passionate about?

This training will enable you to develop creative ways by which you can use writing to engage with the public; providing you with the resources to be more confident in developing and sharing creative writing responses to your area of research.

The course will introduce creative writing for poetry and prose, and textual writing for exhibition / display. It will discuss developing writing for performance.  The aim is to work with you to bring out the creative responses that lay within your own work. There will be the opportunity to receive written feedback throughout the week, and to discuss your work in a 1-to-1 session with the course tutor (if requested in advance).

The training will be led by David Cain. David’s most recent book, Truth Street, was shortlisted for the prestigious Forward Prizes for Poetry (2019). David brings his writing experience together with a passion for public engagement - he currently leads the delivery of the Cambridge Festival.

Equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) are integral to effective and impactful public engagement. Effective public engagement requires intentional and thoughtful interactions with relevant parties, such as your intended audiences and engagement partners. This means public engagement that is accessible, inclusive and relevant to your audiences and engagement partners context.

In this course, we introduce and explore EDI concepts and guidelines for public engagement that can help you achieve this.

This course will be led by Dr. Tana Joseph, Public Engagement and Impact Manager for Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences.

In this session Dr Holmes-Henderson (Durham University) and Owen Garling (Bennett Institute for Public Policy at the University of Cambridge) and Nicola Buckley (Centre for Science and Policy) will explain routes into policy engagement for researchers in Humanities and Social Sciences disciplines. They will explain the benefits for academics and their institutions of sharing academic research with policymakers in government, parliament and the devolved nations. This will be a practical and interactive session, with the opportunity to ask questions and design a strategy for getting started.

Dr Arlene Holmes-Henderson is Associate Professor in Classics and Ancient History at Durham University where she holds a British Academy Innovation Fellowship (2022-2024). As an expert in Classics outreach and knowledge exchange, she engages diverse stakeholders to explore ways to widen access to the study of the classical world.

Working at the intersection of research, policy and practice, Arlene collaborates closely with policymakers in government and parliament on issues across the Humanities and Education. An affiliated researcher with the Bennett Institute, Arlene sits on AHRC’s Public Policy Advisory Board. Her successful policy engagement with a range of partners has been showcased in this short video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6gEzYV9RSY

Owen Garling is the Knowledge Transfer Facilitator at the Bennett Institute for Public Policy where he provides an important conduit between its own researchers and policymakers in the UK and internationally. His work helps to ensure that the Institute’s research is focussing on the questions that matter, and that it reaches the right policymakers and public audiences for making a positive difference. Owen’s work covers all of the Bennett Institute’s research themes: Place, Progress, Productivity and Decision-making in Government. With over two decades of experience of working in the public sector in and around Cambridge he has a particular interest in how the Bennett Institute’s work can support policymakers working at regional and local levels as well as at a national level.

Nicola Buckley manages the Fellowships and Networks at CSaP. She also develops CSaP's academic networks, supporting researchers to plan policy engagement, and develops interactions with other universities in policy engagement. Nicky is the institutional lead for the Capabilities in Academic Policy Engagement (CAPE) project, funded by Research England. As part of the CAPE project, Nicky was seconded for a year to the Knowledge Exchange Unit in the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST) to help Select Committees in UK Parliament generate Areas of Research Interest and disseminate these to the academic community nationally.

Nicky is one of the Vice-Chairs of the Universities Policy Engagement Network, responsible for strategic partnerships.

From lab equipment to label makers, objects can help people to engage with your research in new and interesting ways. In this session we will look at how you can safely introduce objects into your public engagement, how close looking can help enthuse people and how even the most seemingly un-exciting artefact can tell stories.

Sarah-Jane Harknett co-ordinates evaluation projects across the University of Cambridge Museums. Alongside this role, she also heads up the Public Engagement programmes at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology where she regularly teaches with objects.

A session for those who have been to the Introduction to Evaluation session but would like further support on getting their evaluation right. Do you have questions about what methods to use? How to make your results reliable? How to report on your findings? Submit your questions or concerns in advance of the session for tailored support

Would you like to find out what audiences think about your activity but want to try something other than a questionnaire? Want to move beyond ‘any other comments’? In this session, find out about alternative evaluation techniques used in the University of Cambridge Museums, and how you could apply them to your own situation.

Sarah-Jane Harknett co-ordinates evaluation projects across the University of Cambridge Museums. Alongside this role, she also heads up the Public Engagement programmes at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.

Kate Howlett coordinates evaluation across the University of Cambridge Museums, including of permanent and temporary exhibitions, public programmes and events, and specialist inclusion programmes. In addition, she helps collect, collate and analyse data from across the UCM for reporting to Arts Council England and other funders

This event is online only.

Successful public engagement can benefit research, researchers and the public – but how do you go about demonstrating this change? This workshop will guide you through the best evaluation processes showing you when, why and crucially how, to use evaluation to give you reliable and clear data. Demonstrate success to funders; record Impact for REF; learn how to improve your processes and have a better understanding of the people you are connecting with.

The workshop will be followed by the option of a one-to-one consultation to discuss individual and project specific evaluation approaches. These will take place after the workshop and last for 20 min. Please contact the ER team for information on how to book this session.

Dr Jamie Gallagher is an award-winning engagement professional with over ten years’ experience in the delivery and evaluation of quality engagement projects. Working across dozens of institutions and subject areas he has improved the reach, profile and impact of research engagement in almost every academic discipline.

As a specialist in evaluation Jamie provides consultancy services to charities and universities helping them to demonstrate their impact and to understand their audiences and stakeholders. He consulted on dozens of REF impact case studies in the latest round and works regularly with the vast majority of the Russell Group Universities.

Are you struggling to engage with public audiences beyond the usual suspects? Do you want to widen your professional network? Could you be the authoritative voice in your field? If these questions resonate with you then podcasting could be the answer. This training will give you all the skills, tools and information you need to get started with creating a compelling podcast, keep going after the first flurry of excitement, and increase your overall impact.

The training will be led by Dr Anna Ploszajski, an award-winning materials scientist, writer, presenter, podcaster, performer, trainer and storyteller based in London.

This training will introduce researchers to the importance of quality public and patient involvement in their research and look at current best practice. You will find out about local support available in the region to help plan, deliver and build PPI into research, so as to improve research for patients, services users, and carers. The session will include examples and case studies of how local researchers have incorporated PPI into their research.

The training will be led by Dr Amanda Stranks, the PPI/E Strategy Lead at NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre.

We’ll be looking at the what, why and how of public engagement and introducing you to ways to plan an effective public engagement project. Topics:

• The what: definitions of public engagement, who are the public, what activities count as engagement, what are the goals?
• The why: University commitment to PE, REF, Funders
• The how: the Logic Model approach to planning PE, practical considerations, moving engagement online and opportunities at the University.

This course will be led by Dr Claudia Antolini, Public Engagement Manager

So much of research success relies on collaborations and professional networks. But many of us undersell ourselves and our achievements, or struggle to fit our whole career into a cohesive narrative. This is where personal branding comes in.

In this training, you’ll learn how to define your personal brand, and communicate that effectively through writing, presenting, images, websites and social media. You’ll do exercises which will help you see yourself from an outsider’s perspective, and be given the tools to make you the hero of your own story.

Dr Anna Ploszajski is an award-winning materials scientist, presenter, comedian and storyteller based in London. She’s a materials generalist, equally fascinated by metals, plastics, ceramics, glasses and substances from the natural world. Her work centres around engaging traditionally underserved audiences with materials science and engineering through writing, podcasting, presenting and social media. Having developed her own unique blend of autobiographical scientific storytelling in her first book, Handmade: A Scientist’s Search for Meaning Through Making, she now trains professional technical people to communicate what they do better, through the study of story. In her spare time, Anna plays the trumpet in a funk and soul covers band and is an ultra-endurance open water swimmer. Oh, and it’s pronounced “Por-shy-ski”.

Once upon a time there was a researcher who spun a story so enthralling that it captured their audience’s imagination and they remembered the research for years to come.

Was that researcher you? Would you like it to be?

Telling a good story helps you connect with an audience; brings your research to life, visually and emotionally; and makes it easier for them to listen, understand and remember your research.

This module takes you through the art and science of storytelling: understanding attention, motivation and the evolution of storytelling, the strength of non-verbal connections, dramatic structures and rhetorical devices; to give you the skills to craft an engaging story to communicate your own research.

And if you want to apply this on a specific story of your own, then further support is available through individual coaching.

Sarah is passionate about the art and science of communication and eloquential is her rattle bag of knowledge, skills and experience which she uses to train, coach and facilitate. Sarah collects research from areas such as psychology and neuroscience, along with practitioners’ experience from the performing arts to fill her bag of tricks, tips and advice. Sarah has been involved in public engagement since 2006, working closely with the Cambridge University. She is also a peripatetic teacher of communication and performance skills in schools, and a co-host of a podcast called Gin and Topic

This event is Online only.

Why is YouTube popular? Because people love watching videos. A research video can be a great way to get your message across to your collaborators, your friends, and the wider world as well as being a condition of some funding bodies.

But it isn't easy to do well - and this is where this course will make a difference. Come along and learn the skills needed to plan, shoot & edit high quality footage for research videos so that your video can stand out from the crowd. You just need yourself, a camera phone and your enthusiasm!

You will have the opportunity for a one-to-one 30-minute session with the trainer where you can discuss your ideas and questions and get project specific help.

The course will be led by Ryd Cook. Ryd is a multi award winning film director, actor and mentor. His fiction and documentary films have screened in film festivals around the world. He has 15+ years of experience, filming, editing and producing a range of films. He has also been teaching practical filmmaking for over 10 years for all ages. He currently works as a director, cameraperson, actor and mentor.

Engaging young people with your research can be very worthwhile and rewarding. This training session will support you with your public engagement work with schools by introducing you to the UK school system and discussing how public engagement work can fit with existing school priorities. We will consider ways in which your work can make an impact and briefly consider how public engagement can work with underrepresented groups and contribute to diversity and inclusion initiatives. You’ll be introduced to ways in which the University already works with schools to provide you with ideas for collaboration. Lastly, we’ll begin to think about how to plan and design activities suitable for school audiences.

This training is particularly useful if you are considering hosting a schools session as part of the Cambridge Festival.

At the end of this session, you’ll hopefully feel more confident about how to work effectively with schools and can start thinking about your own public engagement work. The group session will be followed by the opportunity for a one-to-one 15-minute session with the trainer where you can discuss your projects, ideas and questions and get project specific help.

This course will be led by Dr Diogo Martins Gomes. Diogo is a Public Engagement and Communications Manager at the University of Cambridge with experience of working in the higher education industry.

Whoever you are trying to engage and whatever you are trying to engage them in, the way in which you do so will greatly affect the outcome. It’s not just what you say, but also how, where, when, why and who. This masterclass explores those peripheral aspects of communication, including:

• The two routes of influence (Central & Peripheral), effort code, forewarning, Cialdini’s psychological shortcuts, and ethics
• Non-verbal behaviour, authenticity and biases
• Social behaviour styles - recognise own style, identify others and adapting to influence
• Listening and exploring - models and techniques, and personal barriers
• Influencing a change in opinion or behaviour - Core conditions and how to provide them

We love a plan! In our Introduction to Public Engagement course, we introduced you to planning using a logic model. In this practical session, we’ll use this tool in exercises that will allow you to think about why you want to engage, the outcomes and impact you want to achieve, who you want to engage with and how to reach them.

We’ll look at how to run your project efficiently and how you might evaluate to learn and evidence your success. We’ll also consider the places you run events in, the resources you might need, tips on event planning and how you can make your engagement more inclusive.

You don’t need to come with a plan, we’ll start with hypothetical challenges to spark thoughts and ideas and share learning together.

The course will be run by members of the Public Engagement team - Lucinda Spokes, Diogo Gomes and Claudia Antolini. As part of this course, we will provide information on how we support public engagement across the University.

In this course Arlene Holmes-Henderson MBE, Professor of Classics Education and Public Policy at Durham University, shares lessons learned over a decade of communicating research to policy and public audiences. Arlene will share examples of academic-policy collaborations which resulted in significant national strategic investments. She will also discuss the pros and cons of engaging with broadcast journalists, exemplifying how radio/tv/newspaper coverage can both hinder and help a researcher’s goals. Researchers will have the chance to consider their current communication strategies and to build an action plan for future engagement goals. This course is designed to be interactive and discursive, with plenty of opportunity for Q&A.

Dr Arlene Holmes-Henderson is Associate Professor in Classics and Ancient History at Durham University where she holds a British Academy Innovation Fellowship (2022-2024). As an expert in Classics outreach and knowledge exchange, she engages diverse stakeholders to explore ways to widen access to the study of the classical world.

Working at the intersection of research, policy and practice, Arlene collaborates closely with policymakers in government and parliament on issues across the Humanities and Education. An affiliated researcher with the Bennett Institute, Arlene sits on AHRC’s Public Policy Advisory Board. Her successful policy engagement with a range of partners has been showcased in this short video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6gEzYV9RSY

Are you ready to start using social media in a more professional capacity? Maybe you want to use social media to share your research and connect with other academics but don’t know where to start. Perhaps you have a love-hate relationship with social media & wouldn’t be on it unless you had to be. You might even have the “LinkedIn ick” or the “Instagram dread” about posting and sharing.

In this in-person, social media training session, we will cover Facebook groups / Instagram & LinkedIn pages. We will talk about how they differ from each other and which one is best for your “personal brand” and research.

We will look at the functions. We will also think about how to post, what to post and how to get over any icks, fears and blocks. I hope you will come away from this training session with actionable tips and tools and feel more positive about sharing your expertise and finding your network.

Emilie Silverwood Cope has worked in marketing and sales for over 25 years and spent the last 7 years as a social media manager and trainer. She has run Social Media accounts within the education sector across various platforms. She too has a love-hate relationship with social media.

Are you an academic, researcher or PhD candidate who would like to build a media profile and take your research to a global public audience by writing for The Conversation?

The Conversation is a news analysis and opinion website with content written by academics working with professional journalists. It is an open access, independent media charity funded by more than 80 UK and European universities.

In this interactive session we'll take you through what The Conversation is - our origins and aims; what we do and why.

We’ll look at why you should communicate your research to the public and take you through The Conversation’s unique, collaborative editorial process.

We’ll give you tips on style, tone and structure (with examples), look at how to pitch (with examples) and look at different approaches and article types.

• To book your space head over to: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/university-of-cambridge-writing-about-your-research-for-the-conversation-registration-929005178497?aff=oddtdtcreator&_gl=1%2A1xvx8hq%2A_up%2AMQ..%2A_ga%2AOTExODQ3ODkxLjE3MTg4NzM2Mjg.%2A_ga_TQVES5V6SH%2AMTcxODg3MzYyNy4xLjAuMTcxODg3MzYyNy4wLjAuMA..

The eight University of Cambridge Museums (UCM) and Botanic Garden represent the UK’s highest concentration of internationally important collections outside London. With more than five million works of art, artefacts, and specimens, the collections have supported nearly 300 years of investigation into the world around us. Today, we work to deepen understanding of our world, inspire new thinking, and address local and global challenges.

How can researchers get involved with the work of the museums? Or make links to the varied collections? This training session will introduce participants to museums in general as well as work and collections of the UCM.

Sarah-Jane Harknett co-ordinates evaluation projects across the University of Cambridge Museums. Alongside this role, she also heads up the Public Engagement programmes at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.

A recommended course by the Researcher Development Programme as part of the University of Cambridge's subscription to LinkedIn Learning.

The course can be accessed here.

A curated collection of recommended courses by Researcher Development as part of the University of Cambridge's subscription to LinkedIn Learning.

The collection can be accessed here.

A curated collection of recommended courses by Researcher Development as part of the University of Cambridge's subscription to LinkedIn Learning.

The collection can be accessed here.