GLAM PCER Toolkit: Getting started

Examples of opportunities for public and community engagement with research within Oxford University's Gardens, Libraries and Museums, as well as estimates of costs and useful contacts, can be found in GLAM PCER Toolkit: Opportunities by category and GLAM PCER Toolkit: Opportunities by institution. (Please note that opportunities are subject to change.)

The general rule of thumb is to contact the relevant team as early as possible to discuss ideas and involvement.

Oxford University’s Gardens, Libraries and Museums (GLAM) house some of the world's most significant collections, covering the breadth and depth of the natural world and global human experience.

The overview of GLAM institutions below contains information about each GLAM institution as well as links to their websites.

The ‘Collections’ page of the GLAM website contains an overview of this exceptional resource.

The GLAM institutions operate both individually and collaboratively, and there may be scope for PCER activities that are cross-institutional. For example, the Museum of Climate Hope trail across GLAM aims to encourage positive engagement with environmental change among young people and was created by researchers from the University's Environmental Change Institute (ECI) in collaboration with GLAM. Researchers should contact the relevant teams to start discussions about what may be possible.

The general rule of thumb is to contact the relevant team as early as possible to discuss ideas and involvement.

Different activities have different lead-in times, some much longer than others. For example, exhibition planning can take as long as five years in advance for exhibitions at GLAM institutions (and costs can vary from a few thousand pounds to tens of thousands of pounds).

Activities often involve working in collaboration with partners external to GLAM, therefore it is advisable for researchers to contact the relevant team at the institution at the earliest possible convenience.

Time and resources will be required for training staff and building awareness of new products and opportunities. Lead time for the recruitment, training and induction of volunteers needs to be considered.

Any projects which are being included in research funding applications will need to be discussed well in advance of the funder deadline.

The general rule of thumb is to contact the relevant team as early as possible to discuss ideas and involvement.

Please be aware that GLAM venues have full and busy programmes and it may not be possible to pick up activities that have already been fully developed or to deal with urgent requests. Ideally, activities should be co-created with GLAM from project conception and researchers should get in contact early so that we can work together to develop your ideas.

Please note that while researchers may contact GLAM departments directly they are also encouraged to contact departmental/Divisional PCER facilitators for interim support/guidance.

Costs for public and community engagement with research can vary from very little (just the researcher and their research) to thousands of pounds.

GLAM PCER Toolkit: Opportunities for researchers gives some information about potential costs. All planned activities need to be discussed well in advance with the department’s relevant team so that unexpected costs do not cause problems down the line. Again, the general rule of thumb is to contact the relevant team as early as possible to discuss costs.

Staff costs may be given ‘in-kind’ by the GLAM institution in question or may need to be costed into research funding applications (for example, for any Visitor Experience Assistance and/or retail team cover required for out-of-hours events), especially UKRI grants which require Full Economic Costing.  If staff costs are involved then a costing may need to be created in X5, the University’s costing and pricing tool.

Contact Hattie Warburton (harriet.warburton@glam.ox.ac.uk) or Emma Webster (emma.webster@glam.ox.ac.uk) in the GLAM Research and Impact Management team if an X5 costing is required for staff costs. 

To help save on costs, PERShare is a platform where you can borrow and offer public and community engagement with research items, including audio-visual equipment and furniture; the site is managed by Oxford University's MPLS Division.

Researchers are encouraged to include costs for public and community engagement with research activities into funding applications where possible. 

The University of Oxford offers internal funding towards public and community engagement with research for its staff, including:

• Public and Community Engagement with Research Fund
• ESRC Impact Acceleration Account at Oxford (managed by the Social Sciences (SSD) Division)
• EPSRC Impact Acceleration Account (managed by the Mathematical, Physical, and Life Sciences (MPLS) Division)

The National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement website also contains a useful list of funding opportunities available to support public and community engagement activities.

It is helpful to think about why the activity is being done and how in order to understand the kinds of impact that could be achieved.

To be deemed public and community engagement with research the impact needs to be with the public rather than within academia; the definition of impact for the 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF) was as follows:

“An effect on, change or benefit to: Economy; Society; Culture; Public Policy, Services, Health, the Environment or Quality of Life……..beyond academia”.

Annex A of the panel criteria guidance for REF 2021 (Research Excellence Framework 2021) contains a useful list of examples of areas and types of impacts ‘beyond academia’ as well as examples of ways to evidence these.

The GLAM Divisional Office Research and Impact team has a dedicated Evaluation Officer, Felicity McDowall (felicity.mcdowall@glam.ox.ac.uk), who can consult with researchers at an early stage about the most appropriate forms of evaluation and any associated costs.

There are various tools available to help researchers measure the impact of public and community engagement with research activities. The GLAM Divisional Office evaluation guidance SharePoint site (requires Oxford SSO) contains a PCER evaluation toolkit, online evaluation guide, and GLAM PCER evaluation reports.

The University’s Public and Community Engagement with Research team can also advise on evaluation methods and tools. They have drawn together some useful evaluation resources on the University’s Research Support webpages for researchers, DPhil students and professional services staff for evaluation of public and community engagement with research and gathering evidence of impact. Videos 1 (planning evaluation), 2 (evaluation methods), and 3 (shared learning) are a great go-to first step towards learning about evaluation and are in three chunks to be smaller and more manageable.

If you are interested in joining or using the pool of evaluation-trained volunteers for your activity, or just want to find out more about possibilities for PCER evaluation with GLAM, contact Felicity McDowall (felicity.mcdowall@glam.ox.ac.uk) for more information.

The general rule of thumb is to contact the relevant team as early as possible to discuss ideas and involvement.