Campus Engage have been invited to partner with the European Research Council in an Engaged Research webinar as part of the European Research and Innovation Days. This European Commission annual flagship event brings together 25,000 online participants – policymakers, researchers, entrepreneurs and citizens to debate and shape the future of research and innovation in Europe and beyond.
The webinar entitled Challenges and Best Practices of Public Engagement with Research takes place on Wednesday 23rd Sept at 8am (Irish time). It will be led by Tony Lockett, Head of the Communications Unit of the ERC with Kate Morris, National Coordinator for Campus Engage Ireland.
Speaking about the event Kate Morris said, “This session will showcase collaborative, bottom-up solution driven innovations; how the research community is building public trust in science; and why we must bring all members of society on the research and innovation journey to realise societal change – This is a huge opportunity to showcase Ireland’s expertise and insights globally”.
The session will challenge participants to reimagine how ‘bottom-up’ frontier research ideas can be generated; projects delivered; and impacts realised with those that are directly affected. Discussion will focus on the importance of involving the public in the research and innovation process and will showcase the work of three laureates of the first ERC Public Engagement with Research Award.
Representing Ireland is laureate Anna Davies, Professor of Geography at Trinity College Dublin. Anna directs the Environmental Governance Research Group and received the ERC Public Engagement Award for her project SHARECITY.
Also featured is the team who took the first ever image of a black hole in 2019! Billions of people saw that image, bringing a complex phenomenon to the masses via digital technology in our pockets.
Research and innovation policy and funding calls across Europe now actively promote collaboration to address our greatest societal challenges; to maximise the value of, and provide a better return for all, on public investment in European research and innovation.
Engaged research means involving research ‘users’ – policy makers, service users, practitioners, and public in the research process, to enable the transition from idea generation to impact.
The European Research Council is the premiere European funding organisation for excellent frontier research. Every year, it selects and funds the very best, creative researchers of any nationality and age, to run projects based in Europe.
Kate Morris leads Campus Engage on behalf of the 7 IUA universities and TU Dublin. Her role is to embed, scale and promote ‘engaged research’ to address our greatest societal challenges.
For this and other events you can register on https://erc.europa.eu/event/european-research-and-innovation-days-2020