Collaborative Futures Academy: Pause, Reflect, Engage!

How can we push the boundaries of how and who we engage with? How do we break out of our comfort zones, address potential pitfalls and tackle challenging conversations in challenging times?

22-26 November 2021, international, interdisciplinary, online

Engaging the public with controversial issues is challenging, but important. Listening to and engaging with different views, ideas and concerns can bring real long term benefits to research and its impact on society. Researcher confidence is extremely important in fostering a successful culture of engagement and the Collaborative Futures Academy will provide the skills and confidence needed to connect with communities and to talk about difficult subjects.

This week-long masterclass will support early career researchers to develop skills, explore creative ideas for engagement, learn from experts and connect digitally with colleagues from all over the world. We will focus on building capacity and capability and providing confidential networking spaces for researchers to plan, practice and reflect. Each day will have a distinct theme, led by keynote speakers alongside workshops and discussion groups.

Collaborative Futures Academy themes include:

Equity diversity and inclusion – where technology, thinking and language is evolving rapidly, how do we have constructive debates around subjects such as access to knowledge, gender, equality, race, ethnicity, culture and religion? What are the ethical and moral considerations we should be addressing? How do we address historic inequities in research where some voices have been excluded?

Personal skills and understanding – how do we manage our own reactions and emotions to protect our mental health and prevent conflict, offense and hurt? How do we manage the responses of others? We look at key communication and psychological strategies to support a culture of positive engagement and resilience.

Challenging content – we combine the expertise within the group with facilitation and training from subject specialists to learn the most effective ways of discussing the complexities and challenges of our research.

Digital identity – from branding ourselves, cyber identity, data protection and privacy to risk assessments, how do we navigate and communicate in the online world?

Collaboration – who are our key audiences and the professional stakeholders for our research? How do we work effectively with each group, ensuring people’s voices are heard and their perspectives, ideas and concerns understood so our work is improved and better received?