A webinar with Annette Klinkert, Executive Director of the European and Science Engagement Association (EUSEA), and Eulàlia Baulenas, postdoctoral researcher at the Barcelona Supercomputing Centre (BSC). The webinar is part of the Foresight Dialogues webinar series, organized in the context of the CMCC Climate Change Communication Award “Rebecca Ballestra” initiative.
From ivory tower to harbor for trading knowledge, research and innovation can benefit from public engagement to ensure excellence in science. Annette Klinkert, Executive Director of the European Science Engagement Association (EUSEA), and Eulàlia Baulenas, postdoctoral researcher at the Barcelona Supercomputing Centre (BSC), explore the concept of public engagement, its significance for the research community, and how it can translate from theory into action.
In recent years, research funding schemes have increasingly focused on public participation in science and innovation. The European Commission, along with other funding agencies, recognizes the growing importance of research that caters to societal needs. This implies a paradigm shift, leaving behind the traditional fortress model to implement a more inclusive and collaborative approach that recognizes the importance of public engagement in research and innovation. This new paradigm for engagement in research was discussed during the CMCC Foresight Dialogue “Public engagement for climate-resilient societies”.
Annette Klinkert, Executive Director of the European and Science Engagement Association (EUSEA), defines public engagement “as the dialogue or participation model, in which multiple publics and researchers or scientists both benefit from listening and learning from one another, referred to as mutual learning.”
Establishing partnerships with the public and different stakeholders is highly beneficial for the research community. A trusted relationship with the public contributes to the quality of research outputs by enlarging its scope and increasing the robustness of its outcomes. Moreover, a mutual learning approach “leverages collective intelligence from the innovation landscape, which is often excluded from knowledge creation,” added Klinkert.
