Part 4: Why should I work with community partners?
There are a wide range of benefits to working with community partners to engage the public with your research, including:
- Opportunities to engage with audiences and communities you would not otherwise reach
- Expertise in how to engage audiences who are not familiar with higher education/research
- Expertise and knowledge that researchers may lack
- The opportunity for two-way knowledge exchange
- Gain new ideas for research or ways in which your research can have an impact
- Access to local networks that can broaden links with communities
- Potential to contribute to policy drivers such as Engaged Universities[1], the placemaking and levelling up[2]
Visit the Collaboration and Co-production fund pagesLink opens in a new window to explore some of the projects and partnerships WIE has funded to see first hand the benefits to the researchers involved.
You could also sign up to the WIE Mentoring ProgrammeLink opens in a new window if you'd like to be paired with someone who has experience of partnership work and can talk to you about their experiences.
Find out more:
- Leeds Beckett University have produced a video exploring the benefits of their community partnerships initiative “CommUNIty”.
- Northumbria University discusses the benefits of working with local arts and cultural organisations.
- Researchers talk about the benefits of working with public libraries in a toolkit created by Carnegie UK and Libraries Connected to support public library/HE partnerships
- The NCCPE have produced a toolkit for working with local communities which emphasises institution-wide and strategic approaches to partnership building
[1] https://www.publicengagement.ac.uk/about-engagement/what-does-engaged-university-look
[2] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/levelling-up-the-united-kingdom
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