Science and Society – Researchers’ perspectives
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) is leading the Government’s “Science and Society” activity. Following a wide-ranging consultation, BIS established five expert groups to develop Action Plans to address specific elements of the Science and Society agenda. One issue to be considered by the “Science for All” expert group was the recognition of public engagement activities undertaken by scientists. People Science & Policy Ltd was commissioned by Research Councils UK (RCUK) to undertake a short literature review on researchers’ perspectives of reward and recognition for public engagement.
The two main objectives of the literature review were to pull together findings and recommendations from previous studies to explore:
- the barriers to recognition of effective public engagement within academia, industry and health and public services; and
- the role of reward and recognition as a factor in influencing decisions to participate.
Barriers
The review found some critical barriers to participation in public engagement:
- competing pressures on time;
- a lack of appropriate skills; and
- the need for additional support.
Throughout academia research is perceived to be the most important activity for academics and therefore any other task that competes for an academic’s time is prioritised below research. Some researchers report that the lack of some skills is a barrier they face at a personal level. Allied to this is the perception that there is no wider framework to support public engagement within which they can operate. All of these barriers are multiplied for more junior researchers who feel less secure in their positions than their more senior colleagues.
Reward and recognition
The strongest motivating factor seemed to be researchers’ sense that participating in public engagement was a duty that was in essence part of their role as researchers, especially if they were in receipt of public funding. This meant that rewards in the sense of prizes and awards provided little additional motivation, as they are not rooted in the altruistic mindset that underpinned much public engagement activity. The belief that research funders are expecting greater levels of public engagement activity from the recipients of funding is an emerging factor, giving rise to the belief that contributions ought to be recognised within the standard systems used by research employers.
One of the main motivating factors for individual researchers that we have found is winning rewards for their institution. In order to achieve this, many researchers believe that public engagement should be recognised within research quality assessment. There was however, a counter view that including public engagement in assessment procedures such as the forthcoming Research Excellence Framework (REF) could in fact stultify creativity, making public engagement a box to be ticked.
Personal and institutional responsibilities
We have found a widespread belief within the research community that it is inappropriate to expect all researchers to participate in public engagement and that those least well equipped to contribute should not be required to. This led to the conclusion that if public engagement programme is to become an embedded part of research activity, then responsibility should sit at an institutional rather than personal level.
Full report and wider context
Our full report “Reward and Recognition of Public Engagement” is available on both the BIS and British Science Association websites along with the “Science for All” expert group’s report and action plan and a number of other background reports commissioned to support the group.
See either:
http://interactive.bis.gov.uk/scienceandsociety/site/all/