Public Engagement

https://www.uniupo.it/en/third-mission/public-engagement

Public engagement is a multidimensional concept, which involves all disciplines and defines all activities of educational, cultural and societal development value aimed at an audience of non-experts.

It is, without a doubt, the topic in which we manage to obtain the most brilliant results. Over the years, we have entered into agreements with leading bodies and associations and carried out highly visible projects. We ranked first nationally in the 2011-14 VQR-TM survey.

This success was repeated in the 2015-19 edition, based on different criteria. Four case studies had to be presented; we chose three concerning public engagement, with one receiving the rating of "Excellent and extremely relevant" while the other two were rated "Excellent". In the general ranking, which included the entire third mission activity, we ranked fifth among public universities and seventh in the overall system of 98 Italian university institutes.

Our teachers/researchers have acquired greater awareness over time (thanks also to extensive training) and the Departments are regularly committed to communicating and disseminating knowledge through a direct relationship with the territory and all stakeholders. These activities are all very different from each other, and imply different levels of commitment: from one-off events to continuous and ongoing programmes; from individual initiatives to institutional University activities.

The project currently includes these fields of action:

  1. organisation of cultural activities (concerts, theatre shows, film festivals, artistic performances, sporting events, exhibitions and other cultural events open to the public, etc.)
  2. scientific knowledge dissemination (works dedicated to a non-academic public, radio and television programmes, etc.)
  3. multimedia dissemination (blogs and other social channels of scientific communication and dissemination, excluding the institutional website, publication and management of websites, etc.)
  4. initiatives for proactive involvement of citizens in research and/or innovation, also to encourage the dissemination and implementation of research and innovation results in society, and reduce inequalities and discrimination (debates, scientific festivals and cafés, online consultations, citizen science, legal clinics, etc.)
  5. involvement and interaction activities with the world of school (experiments, simulations, educational games and other workshop activities, citizenship education, etc.)

The Rector’s Staff and Communications Team draws up an annual report that is sent to the Evaluation Unit. It contains the qualitative and quantitative data of the public engagement initiatives carried out in the previous calendar year. The Group subjects them to analysis, formulates judgments and indicates the aspects to be enhanced.

Finally, we subscribe to APENET, the Italian Network of Universities and Research Centres for public engagement.