Public and community engagement with research

Enhancing the quality and relevance of King’s research to society through meaningful Public and Community Engagement

Public and Community Engagement with Research (P&CER) refers to the many ways that public and community groups can interact with and shape research. Meaningful engagement and involvement should equally value academic and non-academic skills and expertise and aim to generate benefits for everyone. Done well, P&CER enriches research, making it more competitive and improving its overall quality and relevance to society.

Our ambition for P&CER at King's is set out in our strategic direction, which details our approach to building a culture of engaged research through support, training, reward and recognition and impact capturing.

At King's, P&CER takes many forms ranging from knowledge sharing to collaborative involvement of publics in shaping and carrying out research.

A strategy led by our communities

Following an initial review of the KEF 1 results with our VP Research and Senior Leadership, a strong mandate was given to strengthen support and coordination for P&CER.

An external evaluation of existing P&CER support was commissioned, along with a series of consultations with a range of internal and external stakeholders, including Senior Leadership, King’s Researchers, P&CER Professionals, local community members and lived experience advocates. Together we have developed a new Vision and strategic direction for P&CER, along with a series of principles, priorities, objectives and actions to guide our approach.

P&CER at King's Community Consultation - (pdf) 3874 Kb

Strategic objectives

Develop a King’s approach for delivering Public and Community Engagement across all of our strategic priorities
Build on and nurture our existing expertise and utilise our long-term partnerships with local, national and international communities and organisations
Provide support for the range of engagement activities we partake in, building capacity to meet the different needs of our communities internally and externally
To become a more open and accessible institution for our external communities
To build monitoring and evaluation into our activities with opportunities to reflect on, learn and improve our practice
To communicate our successes with our internal and external communities, sharing best practice and celebrating our mutual achievements

Our operating principles

Recognise and develop existing support – do no harm to what already works well and enhance it
Be truly inclusive to promote an appreciation of diversity and the diverse viewpoints that will improve research. Be responsive to the needs and interests of our communities
Demonstrate Vision 2029 and values such as collegiality, respect, accountability, fairness and trust
Embed properly resourced two-way engagement throughout the research cycle and ensure all researchers have access to support to achieve this
Leadership and light-touch governance are important. King’s needs a senior champion to support and oversee the growth of a college-wide network of engaged researchers, ambassadors and public engagement professionals
A plurality of reward and recognition measures must be promoted to celebrate public and community engagement, aligned with impact, as a core research support activity
Become reflective practitioners to support best practice and shared learnings

King’s Engaged Researcher Network

The King’s Engaged Research Network (KERN) is an exciting collaboration, launched in late 2016. We foster a growing community of King’s staff and students interested in developing sharing and celebrating their public engagement practices.

KERN is aimed at researchers, clinical and technical staff and postgraduate students, at King’s College London, who are interested in engaging different audiences with their field. We run termly workshops and share monthly newsletters which detail opportunities to get involved, information on funding, resources, and examples of good practice.

Advice and support

We provide support for a range of engagement activities with specialist support from PPI/E, Cultural and Community Engagement experts. Advice and practical support is provided via consultation, training, seed funding and access to spaces to enable meaningful engagement.

Impact and engagement services: Providing one-to-one support for researchers looking to build P&CE plans into grant applications
Kings Engaged Research Network: Termly training session sessions in Public and Community Engagement
Centre for Doctoral Studies: Public engagement small grant scheme and training for impact and communication
King's Culture: Enhancing the engagement and impact of research through creativity, collaborations and support across platforms including the Strand Cultural Quarter and Science Gallery London
NIHR Maudsley BRC: Support for researchers looking for help with patient and public involvement

Local support and contacts

There are a number of staff within faculties, centres and departments who can support your engagement activities. Find the most relevant person below or alternatively send an email to the KERN@kcl.ac.uk who will direct you to the most relevant person.