Public Engagement for Policy Impact

Mark Reed

Plan

• The project• Public engagement• Impact• Learning lessons

1 The Project

• £1M RELU/LWEC & ESRC funded project helping people anticipate and adapt to future change across UK uplands since 2005

• Almost £1M co-funding from research users• Interdisciplinary team of 25 people from 5

Universities & 2 NGOs

• Analysing environmental case studies across the UK

• Workshops with KE academics/professionals • Best practice principles• Living With Environmental Change

partnership’s Knowledge Exchange Guidelines

2 Public engagement

• Videos on You Tube and DVD• Newspaper/magazine articles• Newsletters in visitor centres• Project websites• Community meetings• Schools resources (Summer 2013)

the usual stuff

• Interactive website – www.ouruplands.co.uk

• Twitter:– @reluuplands (>2000 followers) – @sustainlearning (>1000 followers)– Top twitter tips for academics (>12,000 views on Scribd)

social media

Academic institutionsAcademic individuals

NGOs, charities & think-tanks

NGO individuals

PublicSpam

Businesses & consultancies

Business individ-uals & consul-

tants

Media organisa-tions & publica-

tions

Journalists & writers

Public sector organisations

Public sector in-dividuals

Land managersPhotographers & film-makers

Bird watchers Unions Politicians & political parties

Who our followers are:

...what we tweet about

social media

• Jazz composition by Huw Warren• Song and music video by award-winning photography

collective & David Attenbourgh’s sound recordist• Fairytale told by storyteller and made into book• Conceptual art by Dalziel & Scullion (hunting bag)

arts

• Suite of smart phone apps for Lake District National Park & “visitor payback” module for other apps (coming in summer 2013)– Learn about the hidden beauty and value of the

landscapes you’re walking through through map-based text, audio, video & photography

– Invest in the places you love:• Woodland creation• Bee corridors• Peatland restoration• Footpath repair

apps

3 Impact

• Public engagement resources also influence policy-makers– Music video shown to 10,000 people from 153

countries at a congress that got peatlands onto IUCN’s international work programme

– DEFRA are part funding our app work, so they can feed lessons into their Payment for Ecosystem Service Action Plan

Impact

Impact

• Raising public consciousness about issues you’re researching can raise those issues up the political agenda• Statistics from our research quoted in the Independent

newspaper were quoted in parliament• Regular media coverage over last 5 years helped keep

political momentum – now funded by DEFRA to draft a UK Peatland Carbon Code to finance peatland restoration

4 Learning lessons

www.lwec.org.uk/ke-guidelineswww.sustainable-learning.org/training

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2Hs37BctiA&feature=share&list=UU0TSfia70DSF8xCXPPV8G4g

www.sustainableuplandresearch.org

Follow on:

@SustainLearning@reluuplands