Available translations: English

Our commitment to public engagement

We believe that public engagement is essential to ensuring that our research is both relevant and impactful. We are committed to fostering excellent public engagement with our whole research portfolio, in a way that benefits both scientists and publics, in the UK and around the world.



As an organisation, we aspire to be leaders in specific areas of public engagement. In particular, we want to build on our existing strengths in citizen science, community engagement and public dialogue.


Public engagement videos

Bloomin algae

Professor Laurence Carvalho talks about Bloomin' Algae, an app for reporting the presence of harmful algal blooms of blue-green algae.

Predatory birds

Professor Richard Shore explains how the Predatory Bird Monitoring Scheme helps us to track pollutants in the environment.

Invasive species

Professor Helen Roy discusses the problems caused by invasive non-native species and explains how data from volunteers are helping to inform surveillance providing an early warning.

Neonitcotinoid pesticides

Professor Richard Pywell discusses public dialogue around the large-scale field trials designed to find out if neonicotinoid pesticides are a threat to honeybees and wild bees.

UK Pollinator Monitoring Scheme

Dr Claire Carvell talks about the UK Pollinator Monitoring Scheme, which aims to collect structured data on our insect pollinators.

National Plant Monitoring Scheme

Dr Oliver Pescott talks about the National Plant Monitoring Scheme, a UK-wide survey involving amateur botanists and naturalists recording plant abundance.

Public engagement and the project lifecycle

We recognise that research is a dynamic and iterative process, rather than a linear one, and that public engagement with our research may be appropriate at any stage of the research cycle – during the development, delivery or dissemination of research projects. We believe that public engagement with research should generate mutual benefit.


Public engagement blogs