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Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference: EP/R019789/1
Title: PER Challenge: Enhancing the take up of training and CPD for PER
Principal Investigator: Spearing, Professor SM
Other Investigators:
Griffiths, Professor JB Dorney, Dr SJ Read, Professor D
Falkingham, Professor JC
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:
Department: Faculty of Engineering & the Environment
Organisation: University of Southampton
Scheme: RCUK PER Catalysts
Starts: 01 October 2017 Ends: 30 September 2019 Value (£): 90,774
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:
Related Grants:
Panel History:
Panel DatePanel NameOutcome
08 Sep 2017 SEE-PER Panel Announced
Summary on Grant Application Form
In 2015, RCUK and Wellcome commissioned a report exploring what the sum of evidence tells us about the current key highlights, barriers and challenges for public engagement in the research and Higher Education sector.

The report identified a number of challenges and identified that researchers with training in public engagement are both more likely to work with public audiences and partners, and more likely to deliver high quality engagement activities.

This proposal addresses the prioritised challenge: 'Enhancing the take up of training and CPD for PER, and the quality of provision. What are the barriers which lead to low uptake of training and CPD in PER, and how might these be addressed?'

We will take advantage of a very recent change in our institutional context, which will enable us to embed enhanced training/CPD support for PER within a re-imagined professional development provision for researchers and academic staff. Resources are already committed within the institution to further develop a more distributed model of development that will draw on excellence and expertise residing in Faculties and Academic Units at Southampton. The project will bring together colleagues from the Public Engagement with Research unit (PERu), the newly formed Centre for Higher Education Practice (CHEP), and researchers and academic staff working within a cross disciplinary theme, in collaborative work to review training/CPD needs and then design and pilot new/enhanced development approaches and interventions. This work will catalyse the review, design, provision and embedding of PER training/CPD more broadly, as well as informing the broader CHEP mission to develop a distributed, collaborative model for researcher and academic development.

In the longer term, we aim to transform professional development at Southampton, so that development is seen as a co-created, co-delivered and co-owned enterprise that benefits all staff across the institution at all levels. PER professional development, as a result of this project, will be embedded, encountered "routinely", valued, and impactful. These impacts will be transferrable across different disciplines, departments and across the sector.

Key Findings
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Potential use in non-academic contexts
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Impacts
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Summary
Date Materialised
Sectors submitted by the Researcher
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Project URL:  
Further Information:  
Organisation Website: http://www.soton.ac.uk