PublicSpace

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Research Communication

Informing policy, practice or public debate is a vital output of research. It is a means by which a research project may have some lasting impact within and beyond the academic debates. For this reason, research dissemination is demanded by the UK research funding councils.

In addition, the process of articulating the research insight for a wider audience and directly communicating with users can help to inform and fine tune the research insight.

Yet without support, this important component of research may be ineffective, or may be simply overtaken by other pressures at the end of a project. It may even seem impossible when the researcher contracts and collaborations come to an end before the findings are distilled.

PublicSpace was set up with this experience of research in mind. We work with research teams to make dissemination possible and effective. We bring an understanding of social science research and of issues in the communication of scientific insight. We bring experience from further and higher education and have developed expertise in communicating research to practitioners and publics - usually combining film, printed materials, collaborative workshops and online resources.

Example project

Using film, PublicSpace distilled and communicated the findings from an ESRC TLRP funded research project by Lancaster and Stirling Universities.

The film was actually submitted as one of the two ‘nominated outputs’ from the project to the ESRC - an acknowledgement of its intellectual content and communicative value. The project was graded 'Outstanding' in its ESRC End of Award evaluation.

“I think this will be the most valued output from the project. Indeed it convinced me that the [whole research] project was worth the money....”

Richard Edwards, Professor of Education, University of Stirling (Project Co-Director)

“I was surprised at how I couldn’t stop watching it and how engaging it is … how good it is as an explanation of social practice”

David Barton, Professor of Language and Literacy, Lancaster University (Project Co-Director)

The ESRC TLRP have described the film as "dynamic, engaging and innovative”, and feature it on their website.

The DVD comes with a 38 page booklet, containing images from the film, a summary and further explanation of key issues, quotes from the research team, an annotated list of the published articles, issues for discussion, and ideas for how to use the film and online materials in training and professional development.

Copies were free to the 330 practitioners who ordered prior to publication. Further copies are available here and contribute retrospectively to production costs.

image from the film Still photograph taken by one of the practitioners involved in the research, and used in the film.

Interview with a research participant

more about the film and booklet

What we bring

Communicating research insight requires not only experience of communicating effectively with public, practitioner and policy audiences, but an understanding and experience of the fundamental issues and processes in academic research and in generating research insight.

Far from simply re-presenting existing academic reports in ‘accessible language’, communicating research involves understanding, elaborating and connecting the key concepts - to create a coherent narrative of the research insight that is both firmly grounded in evidence and relevant to the practitioner or policy audience.

For this challenging task, we bring:

research training and experience in the social sciences and in education, and an understanding of the processes of making empirical and theoretical claims based on research evidence;
an understanding (from linguistic analysis and science studies) of issues in making the move from a research claim to policy advice or practitioner / public understanding;
experience of engaging policy-makers, practitioners, education providers, students and publics around complex social, ethical, environmental and scientific or technical issues;
experience in producing documentary film and in writing and designing educational and public engagement materials to communicate research insight.

Our role as partial outsiders to the research project is important – we mediate between the shared knowledge, language and assumptions of the research team and those of the intended policy, practitioner or public audience.

Why communicate research through film?

Film has the potential to 'show' as well as 'tell' the audience the relevance and implications of the research. So, for example, images may show the context and relevance of the research while practitioners and researchers talk from direct experience about the issues and insights. By 'showing' what you are talking about, a film can prompt understanding and inspire changes in practice; it can provide a ‘hook’ from which the audience may go on to read more detailed reports and articles.

Film also overcomes some of the usual obstacles to dissemination. For example, communication with policy makers, practitioners and publics often requires the kind of detail, shared knowledge and practical insight that only those who carried out the research and participated in it can offer. Yet these participants may no longer be part of the project by the time the findings are ready to communicate. A film is therefore useful in being able to combine complementary insights recorded at different moments in the research process.

The final film can be widely distributed as a DVD, either free or with a price tag that covers the distribution costs and may contribute to the production costs or future research. A DVD with a menu can be viewed as a whole or in parts and therefore in a variety of contexts. Clips can be inserted within online resources and powerpoint presentations for conferences, workshops and classes.

Our focus is on creating film that is professionally and intellectually engaging. It has to be more visually engaging than the dull film-of-a-lecture often produced in HE, and yet more authentic and intellectually rigorous and engaging than a typical corporate film. We focus on communicating the intellectual value and professional or public relevance of the research, in a way that reflects the professional integrity of the research team and their institution.

What the research funding councils say...

The importance...

"No matter how strong the evidence, your research will make no difference to policy or practice if it is not communicated to the right people in the right way at the right time."

ESRC Knowledge Transfer guide

"translating science into policy ... is hugely important and a difficult thing to do well."

NERC ‘Science into Policy’ Foreword

The demands...

"It is the responsibility of the Research Organisation and the Principal and Co-Investigators to actively communicate the research to the public at both local and national level..."

Research Councils UK Core terms and conditions for Research Council fEC Grants (RG20)

"The Council's new mission places emphasis on ensuring that researchers engage as fully as possible with the users of research outcomes. These may be other academics, government departments, public bodies, businesses, voluntary organisations or other interested parties.

ESRC - ‘General Guidance Notes on Constructing a Good Proposal to the ESRC Research Grants Scheme’ (§7)

The processes...

“Perhaps the biggest challenge is to identify 'key findings' and then plan an impact strategy to press these home - based of course, on the close relationships with research users which should have been established from the early days of the project.”

ESRC Teaching & Learning Research Programme (TLRP)

The advice...

'[B]uild dissemination activities into the structure of your research plan rather than give them passing reference as an after thought at the end."

ESRC - ‘General Guidance Notes on Constructing a Good Proposal to the ESRC Research Grants Scheme’ (§7)

Current film projects:

for Stirling Institute of Education - now completed and available online soon.
with EU partners - proposal for Environmental Science dissemination under the EU 7th Framework Programme (FP7).
with a university department - proposal as part of a research proposal to the ESRC.
with Documentary Film Group and Games Monitor - now being reviewed and edited.
for Lancaster University and University of Stirling (as left, our first film) - film and booklet published, registered with libraries, 380 ordered so far.
others at the planning stage...

For more about us, see the People and Publications pages.

Advice if you are thinking about using film to communicate your research...

Budget: Include the budget for the film within the original funding. The research funding councils view dissemination as a requirement, so your initial funding is likely to assume that you have included a budget for that dissemination. It may therefore be difficult or impossible to obtain additional funding later, so it is important to include the dissemination budget in full at the beginning. Digital editing has made film production feasible on a lower budget than before; the current ballpark figure advocated by the professional bodies is around a thousand pounds per minute of the final film. That is a useful figure to keep in mind. It means that a short film to communicate your research will require a potentially small but significant budget within the research proposal. Contact us to discuss it in more detail, and to create a more specific budget for your project.
Process: Record the research visually along the way. The key events, artefacts and participant contributions that are part of the research and which produce the research findings often cannot be repeated later for filming. They need to be recorded visually at the time. So in addition to our filming of the project, we give the research team advice about how they can generate a simple but useful visual record of key events and artefacts along the way. These images are authentic and add authority to the film when integrated within the interviews and other filming of the project.
Dialogue: Develop a dialogue with the intended audience. The funding councils advocate that research teams develop a dialogue with the intended audience(s) as part of the research. In this way you can ensure that their concerns, needs, current debates and assumptions inform your research at an early stage, and inform the insights you later want to communicate. This user dialogue and participation is invaluable when it comes to communicating the research through film.

Example project -

Booklet and website only

Environmental Citizenship: the Goodenough primer

Project: Dissemination of insights from an ESRC funded seminar series exploring the relationship between citizenship and environment, organised by the Open University and University of Newcastle.

Audience: The booklet and website were written and designed for policy-makers, academic researchers, organisations, teachers and citizens involved in issues of environment, sustainability and citizenship.

Funding: part of the original ESRC funding was set aside for dissemination, and some additional funding obtained.

Process: PublicSpace Director, Dr Sherilyn MacGregor attended seminars, and the reporting is based on her notes and those taken by the organisers, Professor Andrew Dobson & Dr Derek Bell.

The booklet: Environmental Citizenship: the Goodenough primer is intended to offer an overview of insights from the seminar series in the form of a stimulating introduction to issues around environmental citizenship. In keeping with the content, it is printed on recycled paper with low environmental impact inks. It is available free from the Open University, made available by the organisers at relevant research / policy / public events, and can be found via the website.

The website: www.environmentalcitizenship.net offers an updatable information base. It includes the booklet both as web pages and as a pdf download. It also includes a bibliography, links to relevant policy documents, research papers from the seminar, and a text search facility.

As a not-for-profit organisation, PublicSpace Ltd can be included as a named partner or provider within a funding proposal, or simply contracted.