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Sector Development

We drive the professionalisation of the Public Engagement Sector on individual, institutional and policy level through community building and consultation.

We are an active ally for everyone working on the dialogue between science and society, and actively advocate for the embedding and professionalisation of Public Engagement.
Our team members bring years of experience in the sector, influenced by international perspectives and a deep understanding of the sector in Germany. Backed up by our own research, we continuously develop ourselves and our work, adapting it to current needs and developments in the sector.

Offers for Individuals
Our Community Events 

In order to expand and develop the Public Engagement community in Germany, we organise personal development and networking events. Sign up for our newsletter and follow us on LinkedIn to always be informed about future events. 

Public Engagement Training Exchange

  • Berlin
  • 21.-22.11.2024

Next Steps Launch Event

  • Berlin, online
  • 20.11.2024

First Steps
Symposium

  • online
  • 6.-10.9.2021

PEP Journal

  • online
  • monthly

Individual professional development pathways in PE

Consultation: How to Embed PE

With bespoke training and consultation, we support the institutional embedding of Public Engagement and Impact. This includes expert guidance on integrating Public Engagement and Impact strategies within institutions, projects, policy, and funding frameworks.

Show your interest in bespoke training or consultation
Reach out to explore if this offer is right for you. We typically arrange a call within two weeks, and look forward to learning about your goals.

Our Experience

The SimpliciTB project, where we act as consultants and mentors to the Community Engagement Officer in Malawii, aims to create a unified model for evidencing impact and reporting across nine TB drug trial sites in six sub-Saharan African countries. The project’s tagline, “Working apart, reporting together,” encapsulates the goal of developing a flexible logic model that accommodates the diverse types of community engagement across sites while standardizing the collection of key impact indicators. This approach has led to the TB Alliance adopting the logic model for use at trial sites worldwide, strengthening their capacity for impact reporting and development.

Through our Public Engagement Training Portfolio, we advise on the embedding of PE training and culture change initiatives into Excellence Strategies, to anchor engagement into research networks and significant cross-disciplinary and cross-institutional funding streams. Examples include advising our partners at One Health Research in Greifswald, and several Berlin University Alliance Clusters of Excellence including, our training partners NeuroCure.

In the collaborative project Capacities and Competencies in Dealing with Hate Speech and Hostility towards Science (KAPAZ), the Berlin School leads the Train-the-Trainer programme to translate research findings into actionable insights that can build institutional resilience against science hostility in Germany. The project aims to provide new empirical evidence on the prevalence of hostile and derogatory behaviour towards scientists in Germany. It also develops institutional support and infrastructure to actively protect researchers from attacks online and offline.

The BSoPE is a practice partner in Zukunft findet Stadt, a network of 5 Applied universities in Berlin, who focus on making Berlin more resilient to respond to crisis, particularly in regard to climate and health issues. Here we lead the Third Mission School project, an integrated, expert PE support role that enables researchers and Transfer Managers to optimise their civic engagement activities.

IETI seeks to enhance the quality and reach of Museum für Naturkunde Berlin’s Public Engagement, aligning it with academic, societal, and environmental goals. It comprises three main work packages: mapping PE efforts, developing evaluation tools, and fostering culture change through integration and co-creation. The project aims to embed PE into MfN’s strategic practices, contribute research-driven insights, and encourage researchers’ active participation. The project will produce actionable recommendations to drive MfN’s cultural and impactful transformation.

Sector Development through Research and Co-Creation

We advocate for the anchoring of Public Engagement in the German research landscape, and strive to build the evidence base of the value and impact of engagement, to better understand the sector and inform its development. Through research partnerships, and our reflective research approach, we focus on the barriers, benefits, strategies, policies, and outcomes of Public Engagement towards academia.

Learn more about our research here

In a short contract research study, commissioned by The Stifterverband, we aim to explore and develop the potential for Transdisciplinary and Participatory research and Public Engagement with research (TPPE) in Germany. The report will map stakeholders and networks, analyzing terminology and motivations, and examining case studies of effective practices. The outcome will be a comprehensive understanding of the field’s current landscape, identifying gaps, challenges, and opportunities for strategic development that Stifterverband can address through funding and initiatives.

We convene senior leaders and policy makers to advocate for sector development through events such as Senior Round Tables and intergovernmental exchanges. In 2022 we hosted a Senior Round Table in Cape Town, with individuals operating at a senior level in Research Institution Management, Research Funding, Research Policy, and Public Engagement Support, in South Africa and Germany. Delegates discussed the status and potential of Public Engagement with research, to inform future agendas for cooperation and funding, which resulted in a bi-lateral fellowship programme for leadership in Engagement, the PEX. In 2024, we hosted a European Commission Mutual Learning Exercise to inform the development of European policy and funding for Public Engagement.

In a multidisciplinary research consortium, we lead a fully embedded research stream, to integrate PE throughout research cluster activity. ImmunoPreCept is a consortium of eight Berlin-based organizations focused on early disease detection and interception before symptoms appear. Selected for the final round of an Excellence Cluster application, the initiative integrates Public Engagement (PE) as a core research stream, highlighting the importance of engaging patients, policymakers, clinicians, and industry. This approach aims to assess the ethical, reflective, and practical impacts of PE on research, including public and patient acceptance, its influence on research processes, and societal responsibility for health. The project also explores patient experiences to inform clinical practices and uses citizen sensing to map environmental and lifestyle factors, aligning them with ImmunoPreCept’s goals.

In a practitioner-oriented approach we co-created the Principles for Public Engagement with the German Public Engagement community. It is the first of it’s kind and has become a guiding document for Public Engagement in Germany.

Public Engagement Training Exchange: From Principles to Practice

The Training Exchange brought together 32 practitioners for two days of reflection, discussion, and peer learning. It took place on 21-22nd November 2024. Participants explored key themes such as sustainable researcher learning journeys, diversity in training, and other shared challenges of the field. Emphasising advocacy and community, the event underscored the importance of positioning PE training as a core element of academic culture change. The exchange highlighted the need for targeted messaging that resonates with diverse audiences, including researchers and decision-makers, and reinforced the value of fostering supportive, connected communities to nurture a positive research culture. This gathering sparked practical idea-sharing, peer learning, and collaborative action planning, laying the foundation for continued dialogue and resource development within the PE community.
  • Berlin
  • 21.-22.11.2024
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Next steps

Next Steps supports German professionals facilitating engagement and dialogue between research and society. Our Launch Event on 20th November 2024 in Berlin kicked off an ongoing in-person and online networking and ideation space covering careers and professional skills development. We also discussed which tools and resources are available, and identified those that are needed for developing an effective and sustainable professional practice. Beyond the initial meeting, the community is continuing these conversations through working groups to create resources that empower all actors to act as advocates for change.

  • Berlin, online
  • 20.11.2024
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First Steps Symposium

Our kick off event “First Steps Symposium” took place in September 2021. It was targeted at all sorts of ‘engagers’, people working in different forms of science-society dialogue in Germany. By bringing these people together, and building a community for Public Engagement, the event took the first steps in the growing field of Public Engagement in Germany. As a result of ‘First Steps’, a PE community and a working group were founded that identified the need for a common definition and guiding principles for working in Public Engagement. This is how the ‘Principles for Public Engagement’ were born.

Programme
  • online
  • 6.-10.9.2021
Original Graphic Recording Zusammenfassung First Steps Barbara Ott
OTT

PEP Journal

The Public Engagement Practitioners (PEP) Journal Club, is a monthly, online event, hosted by the Berlin School and ScotPEN, the Scottish Public Engagement Network. Here, participants come together to review, discuss and critique a selected PE or SciComm research paper, which is briefly summarised and presented by the moderator at the start of the session, before opening to group discussion and debate. It is open to all with an interest in the practice and theory of Public Engagement and Science Communication.

  • online
  • every 3rd wednesday of the month

Individual professional development pathways in PE

We also offer a number of professional development opportunities for individual researchers and professionals, who are leading culture change in their institutes and advocating for the development of the sector, such as ChangeMaker Academy, and the Germany-South African Public Engagement Exchange.

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History Museum Berlin

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