The Beacons for Public Engagement

Public engagement describes the many ways that the activity and benefits of higher education and research is shared with, and informed by, the public. There was already a large amount of inspiring public engagement activity involving universities and research institute, but much of this work was (and still) is under the radar and vulnerable to shifts in funding.

In response, six Beacon partnerships and the National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement were funded by the Higher Education Funding Councils, Research Councils UK and the Wellcome Trust.The funders were keen to see how public engagement activity could be embedded into the culture of higher education institutes.

There have been successes and challenges along the way – but what is emerging is a significant amount of learning about how to create lasting culture change. This booklet details some of the work of the NCCPE and the Beacons, including viewpoints from some of the twenty three universities involved. We invite you to get involved in this exciting project.