Here we provide a snapshot of the public engagement events and opportunities organized by or in collaboration with the PER Team as well as those we know of organised by UoB researchers (if you’d like your event to appear here, let us know!)

Think: Public Engagement with Research
University of Birmingham
Here we provide a snapshot of the public engagement events and opportunities organized by or in collaboration with the PER Team as well as those we know of organised by UoB researchers (if you’d like your event to appear here, let us know!)
EPS PER Forum
The place to find out about all things public engagement happening in Engineering and Physical Sciences (EPS) and beyond! BOOK YOUR PLACE HERE
Join the University of Birmingham Public Engagement with Research team (Dr Caroline Gillett & Dr Leah Fitzsimmons) for the first in our new series of standalone creative workshops aimed at showcasing how innovative collaborations between researchers and others artists/creatives/makers can open doors to engaging new audiences with the amazing work that researchers do.
An afternoon exploring, facilitating and initiating collaborations between scientists, artists, creatives, academics and curious organisms of all varieties. We will be investigating public engagement opportunities across biomedical, health & wellbeing sectors, debating their value and hopefully fostering some new collaborative projects.
Read More “Worlds Collide IV: Sci-art collaborations with a Biomedical / Health focus”
We are looking for postgraduate students, researchers and artists to collaborate on the next edition of Lapworth Lates being held on November 7th, 2018 themed, HERE BE MONSTERS. See below for details and how to apply or find out more about the last event here.
Image Credit: Greg Milner Photography
Read More “LAPWORTH LATES: HERE BE MONSTERS Calling academics, research students and artists”
We are looking for UoB researchers to get involved in a day-long takeover of our Twitter account @UOBengage.
What does a Twitter Takeover involve?
It could be a day where you are out and about running a public engagement activity/event or it could just be a normal day in your office or lab. It’s up to you!
An example first Tweet:
“Hello I’m XXXX & today my research group has taken over @UOBengage to introduce you to the research we do in the XXXX lab #TwitterTakeover”
Simple.
Obviously, we ask that tweets are not offensive, inflammatory, inaccurate or likely to jeopardize your intellectual property. Tweets should be easy for a non-academic to understand, so try to avoid complicated terminology unless you can explain what it means! We welcome humour and a bit of fun, so long as we also get to understand your research life a little better too!
There are no maximum number of tweets you need to send per day… so it could be 10, 20, 30… it’s up to you! This is a great chance to get your research out to a different audience so they can learn about what you do. We are happy for you to use the opportunity to promote existing UoB researcher / UoB research-related profile accounts too, just don’t go too overboard on promo or people might switch off!
If you’d like to takeover the @UOBengage account then drop an email to engage@contacts.bham.ac.uk with a suggested date.
Upcoming Twitter Takeovers:
Nominate yourself!
Past Twitter Takeovers:
28 September 2016 – Centre for Doctoral training in Fuel Cells and their Fuels (Chemical Engineering), lead takeover contacts: James Walker and Aimee Jackson. Read all about James and Aimee’s #TwitterTakeover here.
23 November 2016 – UoB Business Engagement took over our account during Food Matters Live, a B2B event exploring the relationship between food, health & nutrition which took place between 21 – 23 Nov 2017 at ExCeL London.
18 May 2017 – The TIMES Post-Graduate Forum for Midlands researchers interested in history, theology, law, philosophy, politics & arts, literature, and culture of Islamic world took over our account for their post-graduate Symposium day
3 June 2017 – Gemma Mason from the Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies took over the @uobengage account to live tweet updates throughout the day at the XVIII Postgraduate Symposium, which this year was themed on ‘Multiculturalism from Late Antiquity to Modernity’.
The Pint of Science festival aims to deliver interesting and relevant talks on the latest science research in an accessible format to the public – all in the pub! We want to provide a platform which allows people to discuss research with the people who carry it out – no prior knowledge of the subject is required. It is run mainly by volunteers and was established by a community of postgraduate and postdoctoral researchers in 2012. The main festival takes place annually over three days in the month of May simultaneously in pubs across the world. Pint of Science is a non-profit organisation.
For more information about getting involved as a speaker or volunteer contact Dr Charlotte Flavell, coordinator of the Birmingham events.
The University of Birmingham Astronomical Society invites you to attend their programme of free public events, Astronomy in the City. Join them for stargazing, observing with portable telescopes, Observatory visits to use their half metre telescope, talks from our experts about cutting edge astronomy research, and your chance to ask them anything about astronomy!
Astronomy in the City events are strictly all ticketed, and begin in the Poynting Building on our Edgbaston campus, within easy reach of local transport links. For further information or to see if you might be able to get involved visit their website.
Astronomy in the City is brought to you in partnership with the University of Birmingham Astronomical Society, the Birmingham Astronomical Society, the Knowle Astronomical Society, Solihull School and Circles of Influence.
[This is listed under internal events as it is organized through researchers at the University. The events are as stated open to the public]
Café Culturel is the UK’s first student-led discussion Café and aims to place Science within its cultural context. For each event, mostly taking place during the academic term, a guest speaker will deliver a short, informal lecture on a topic of their choice, exploring the interplay between the sciences and the humanities. Then, after a drink, it will be over to you to discuss the ideas, query the speaker and illuminate the concepts.
Cafe Culturel is an initiative run by Dr. E.C. Toescu and students from the Liberal Arts and Natural Sciences and Biomedical Sciences courses at the University of Birmingham.
Get in touch if you are interested in being a speaker or finding out more: cafe.culturel.birmingham@gmail.com
Did you know we have some very famous alumni? Their legacy still lives on in many labs and research groups across the University whether you are aware of it or not. Does your work link back to work done by our famous alumni from the past and if so how can you present the historic story of your research field to others and explain how research continues to add value to challenges which continue to evolve over time.
Useful links:
There are a number of ways in which you can promote your event. In doing so, it is important that you provide the following details:
You are welcome to write a blog piece for this site and we are happy to add your public engagement events/workshops etc. on to our Twitter account and events calendar. Just get in touch via engage@contacts.bham.ac.uk
You can also try the following: