Public & Community Engagement with Research Strategy Refresh

Updating the University’s Public and Community Engagement with Research Strategy

Context

The University’s current strategic plan to engage the public was launched in late 2016. A lot’s changed since then. Public engagement has evolved, funders’ priorities have shifted, our own practice and culture of engagement has grown, and we have a new Vice Chancellor who’s vocal about local and global engagement.

While we at the University have made great strides in building our public engagement platform, we can do more.

So, it’s time to refresh our public and community engagement with research strategy and we can only do that with feedback from the people who are integral to our work. That’s

• researchers;
• the communities and publics affected by our research;
• funders and
• public engagement professionals.

(The order of these groups is not meant to imply any form of precedence or hierarchy; all are required.)

What we’re doing

Since spring 2023, we’ve been listening to the groups listed above. We want to gather in all opinions and ideas and then we’ll spend the summer looking at and making sense of what we’ve heard. We will then start to develop our strategy, testing it with people as we go and adjusting it accordingly.

What you can do

Talk with us! Let us know your thoughts about our current strategy, what we could be doing, and why we should be doing it. The rest of this page sets out some of the ways that you can share your feedback.

Researchers and public engagement facilitators at Oxford

1. We have a survey for researchers and a separate one for public engagement facilitators (PEFs), both open until 11 August 2023. There you can tell us your experiences of and aspirations for public and community engagement with research at Oxford.
2. We’ve already held workshops for researchers and PEFs, but we’d be very happy to come to speak with your Department, Faculty or research group and listen to your ideas. Please email us if you’d like to arrange that.
3. Come to Oxford Inside Out and find us in the exhibition.
4. Keep an eye out for future opportunities to shape our new strategy. Sign up to our monthly PCER Digest news bulletin. Email [email protected] with ‘Start PCER DIGEST’ in the email subject line.

Funders and others who shape or work in public engagement outside of Oxford

We will be getting in touch with key stakeholders, but we’d love to hear from you if you have ideas about Oxford’s public engagement work. Please email us with your thoughts and we will follow up.

Communities affected by our work

1. We have a survey for members of the public and communities open until 11 August 2023.
2. We have been meeting with several community groups and attending community events to better understand how we can provide stronger support.
3. We also invite you to get in touch and speak with our Community Engagement Coordinator, Rachel Piper,  as we’d love to hear your ideas.
4. We invite you to sign up to stay in touch about further opportunities
5. We had a Strategy Refresh Workshop for community members on 4 July 2023.