The public's voice in research
There has traditionally between a large gap between academic research and civil society. EU policy now successfully encourages researchers to interact with the public and vice versa. The EU-funded PERARES (Public engagement with research and research engagement with society) project aimed to support interaction in setting research agendas through engagement with civil society organisations (CSOs) at a regional (Europe-wide) level. Thus, in 11 European regions, Science Shops were established at universities, which successfully formulate and execute research projects based on concerns brought forward by CSOs, and include students in this work. A web portal has been established to host online debates around specific science or social science topics. The first focused on nanotechnology, and PERARES found that although it proved a successful interaction platform, the topics based on social issues instead of scientific developments were more engaging. And it concludes that on-line contacts cannot replace face-to-face cooperation yet. CSOs and researchers have also participated in scenario workshops to develop their cooperation, and joined collaborative research was done by universities and CSOs in various member states. The project investigated funding for research cooperation with CSOs, Higher Education Strategies towards this, curriculum development and produced evaluation tools. PERARES has been successful in bringing together researchers and CSOs to discuss and inform future research and community engagement. The resources developed in the project will be useful for scientists around the world to engage with civil society on important research topics.
Keywords
Civil society organisations, academic research, public engagement, research engagement, community-driven research, science shops
