Development of Ideas
Activities
NDCN researchers undertake a wide range of engagement activities, including working with primary and secondary schools, families, community festivals, museums, athletes, patient groups, and various levels of government.
Contact Carinne and Hanna (see sidebar at right) to discuss your ideas, no matter what stage of development they're at! We can support with idea development, grant applications, logistics and in-person event support, training in relevant skills, connecting you with collaborators, patient engagement, policy engagement, and more.
We also serve as liaisons with Oxford's Asian Cultural Centre and African Families in the UK, who we have institutional partnerships with from 2024.
Materials
We have a Public Engagement Storage Room (at FMRIB on the JR Hospital site) full of materials you can borrow by advance request. This includes large items like gazebos and tables; tech items including ring lights, a projector, a GoPro etc; consumable materials including coloured clay and 'brain hat' sheets; and small props including 'fluffy neurons' and 3D printed animal brains.
Contact Carinne and Hanna (see sidebar at right) with any requests and to find out what we have!
evaluation
We can help you think about what you are trying to achieve with your engagement activity. Once you know this, you can work out how to evaluate it. This will help you to improve your activities in the future. We can help you design questionnaires, facilitate focus groups, or develop other evaluation methods suitable for your planned activity.
We encourage you to build in evaluation plans from the beginning of your project/idea - this is always easier than trying to gather evaluation data retroactively!
Contact Carinne and Hanna (see sidebar at right) as early as possible in your planning process to discuss this.
FYI the university also has how-to guides available for evaluating different types of public engagement activities (e.g. citizen science, performances, exhibitions) as well as an evaluation planning template and various other resources.