AccessLab
Broadening access to scientific information
This is a one day event where we pair researchers up with people from the community who need help with scientific questions that relate to their work or lives, with plenty of support.
An Environment and Sustainability Institute workshop | |
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Date | 25 January 2025 |
Time | 10:00 to 16:00 |
Place | Jubilee Warehouse in Penryn |
Provider | Environment and Sustainability Institute |
Event details
The event is funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), run by Then Try This which is a non-profit organisation based in Penryn, and is a collaboration with Dr. Elze Hesse at the University of Exeter.
This is open to all University of Exeter Science/ Social Science researchers from 2nd year PhD students to Professors. You don’t need any previous experience with public engagement, as we provide a short training session, and you don’t need to know anything at all about the workshop theme (which is ‘healthy soils’ this time). Previous researcher participants have used this as experience on their CVs, continued working with the person they were paired up with, published their work together, directly influenced policy change, and even ended up as close friends.
On the main day, we do these things together:
- Look at how scientific research is funded and published, and how people can access it freely.
- Cover basic fact-checking for media stories that relate to science.
- Have time to co-research a science-related topic of the participant’s choice one-to-one with their paired researcher (you!). This can be anything they like and it doesn’t necessarily need to be limited to the ‘healthy soil’ theme. Their topic or question can relate to their work or personal life, and the work you do in your pairs is considered confidential.
The idea is to pass on the skills to find and use scientific research - this is a skill you all have already, which puts you in a great position to help others! The dates are:
Prep session for researchers: Wednesday 22 January, 3-5pm, Jubilee Warehouse in Penryn.
Main event for everyone: Saturday 25 January, 10am-4pm, Jubilee Warehouse in Penryn.
We’ll provide a full free lunch (we’re very happy to cater for any and all dietary requirements). For anyone who can’t come because of care responsibilities for example, we might be able to provide some support to help cover these costs. If in-person attendance is tricky, let us know as we may well get some online community participants that we could pair you with.
The spaces are quite limited as we keep these workshops small and relaxed (max 8), so if you’d like us to hold a space for you then send an email to amber@thentrythis.org. You can also send any questions you have about it to the same email.