Research institute: digital public engagement with science
In 2019 we led a digital public engagement project for a leading biomedical research institute in London. They wanted to elevate their public engagement activity from a local to a national level, engaging new audiences further afield.
Their public engagement work was extensive but focused largely on local audiences with events, exhibitions, local communities and schools outreach. There was an imperative to elevate their public engagement activity to reach audiences further afield, and they saw digital as the means to do this.
They appointed Pickle Jar Communications to lead a digital public engagement project and gather the insights needed to develop their approach to reach new public audiences.
To do this, we conducted:
Stakeholder conversations and a discovery workshop to establish the “why” and “who” for this new activity
A review of the landscape to identify examples of good digital public engagement in the science and research space
Audience research to establish awareness levels and existing levels of public understanding of their work
A review of existing social media activity and audiences to establish who their current audiences were online
Telephone interviews with their scientists, to gauge their interest and feelings towards more public focussed content and activity online
The result was a recommendations report for new activities and approaches to take forward. These included:
Key themes and big ideas which would require planning and investment, or significant developments to existing activities
Quick wins that could be implemented with less budget and time, particularly around digitising existing public engagement activities and events
New working practices including new outreach methods, and establishing an internal digital engagement group.
Our insights and recommendations were used to develop a funding proposal for investment in their public engagement work, and development of a new digital public engagement strategy.