Examples
Worked examples
- Is an instance
A university hosts a community advisory panel that influences research priorities annually.
- Is an instance
Researchers run a dialogue event with local communities to inform the design of an environmental study.
Counter-examples
Looks similar, but isn't
- Not an instance
Counting a public lecture as bidirectional PE when no audience interaction occurred.
- Not an instance
PE conducted only at the end of a project with no influence on its design.
Editorial commentary
Public engagement (PE) is, in the National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement’s (NCCPE) own definition, the myriad ways in which the activity and benefits of higher education and research can be shared with the public — often involving two-way interaction to generate mutual benefit, rather than one-directional dissemination of findings to a passive audience.
How this differs from Public Engagement with Research (PER)
This page covers PE at the broader, institutional level — an organisation’s overall practice, capacity, and strategy for engaging the public across all of its activity, not tied to any one project. Public engagement with research (PER) is the narrower, UKRI-anchored term for engagement activity tied to one specific piece of research: involving publics in shaping that project’s questions, in dialogue during the work, or in engagement with its findings. Every instance of PER is an instance of PE; not every instance of PE (a public lecture series, an institutional science festival, general outreach) is tied to a specific funded project the way PER is. If you are describing activity planned and reported as part of a single grant, use PER; if you are describing an institution’s overall engagement capacity or strategy, PE is the correct term.
The engagement spectrum
PE ranges from one-way dissemination (public lectures, science festivals, broadcast) through dialogue (community panels, consensus conferences) to active participation (citizen science, co-production). The NCCPE’s EDGE tool helps an institution self-assess its PE strategy and infrastructure at the organisational level — distinct from assessing any single project’s PER plan.
Funder embedding
PE has been embedded in UK research funding via UKRI’s strategic commitments, the NIHR’s Patient and Public Involvement requirements, and the Wellcome Trust’s public engagement grants. Best practice emphasises planning, genuine two-way exchange, evaluation, and learning loops back into institutional strategy and research design.
References
- National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement, publicengagement.ac.uk.
- Wellcome Trust, Public Engagement Fund documentation.
Also known as
PE
Machine-readable encodings
Use in your systems
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