Research and Industry

We can help

We want our organisation to be the bridge between the public, local research and industry, to help connect people of all ages and backgrounds with your work.

You can take part in our public events or work with us on projects, we can help share your updates on social media, and we will have dedicated exhibition spaces for research and industry in the science centres we’re creating. We’re also here to offer our expertise on science communication and public engagement.

In addition, we offer staff/student training in public engagement, and custom public engagement programmes  to engage the public with your work.

If you’re looking to connect the public with your work, we can help! Some of the activities we can do include:

  • Designing and delivering interactive, public exhibitions.
  • Designing and facilitating public consultations and project co-creation sessions.
  • Designing and running educational workshops in schools.
  • Producing YouTube videos.
  • Producing live lab or site tours to schools or the public (check out our ESC Live project resources to see what we can do).
  • Creating a pack of hands-on demonstrations or exhibits related to your research, and showing these at public events and festivals.
  • Designing and running citizen science projects.
  • Designing infographics – useful for public engagement and including in presentations.
  • Creating simple WordPress websites and landing pages.
  • Organising and facilitating public talks, panel sessions and lab tours.
  • Recording, editing and promoting podcasts.

Look below for some examples of our work so far

Examples of our work

We’ve been working with academics at the University of Exeter to help engage the public with their work. To get an idea of what we can produce, we have some example outputs from these latest projects below:

Exhibitions

We worked with academics in the Exoclimatology group at the University of Exeter and local artists to design and run our first public exhibition in 2022 (funded by an STFC Spark Award). This hands-on experience was guided by a team of mediators (local scientists and Exeter Science Centre volunteers) and connected over 1200 people with this research. Check out our exhibition virtual tour to find out more.

In 2023, the original exhibition was reimagined with input from local communities to make an even more research-filled and accessible experience. Find out more on our Climate Exhibition 2023 page!

Our revamped climate exhibition in September 2023
Natalie with the Friends of Clennon Lakes phage hunters.

Citizen science projects

We worked with Prof. Ben Temperton’s team on the Citizen Phage Library project. A phage, or technically a “bacteriophage”, is a virus that infects bacteria. Phages can be found everywhere on earth – so there’s a huge potential for finding phages that can help us tackle dangerous bacteria!

The work included designing workshops and water sampling trips with schools and community groups, as well as a project landing page and videos. You can find out more on our Phage Therapy Citizen Science Project page.

Community engagement

We’ve worked with some of the amazing communities in Exeter and in the region to connect them with STEMM research.

From January-March 2024, we’re working with the Royal Albert Memorial Museum and University of Exeter data science academics to understand community feelings about transport, and help them contribute to the academics’ research (pictured, top).

We’ve also run workshops with community groups for our Climate Exhibition 2023 (pictured, bottom) and supported the British Science Festival Community Grants scheme by engaging with and guiding community groups with their projects.

Top: Natalie with Exeter residents and project collaborators from RAMM, the University of Exeter, along with Exeter City Council Housing Services. Bottom: Alice with members of the Pelican Project in Exeter.

YouTube videos

We can design, record, edit and promote educational and informative YouTube videos. Have a look at the Meet the Team video we produced for Prof Temperton’s citizen science project, and the short Tackling Maths Anxiety video we produced for Drs Julie Pepper and Katherine Ashbullby.

You can check out our YouTube channel for all the other videos we’ve created.

Website design

We completely designed and created the new website for the Wu Lab research team, including the production of detailed research summaries. The website is aimed towards the public with an interest in tech / AI / machine learning / 5G, and people working in research and industry. Check out the website here: https://wu-lab.exeter.ac.uk/.

We’re also working with academics at the University of Exeter and Cardiff University to connect the public with a new project on Image-Driven, Subject-Specific Spine Models (IDSSSM). Check out the website we designed here: https://idsssm.exeter.ac.uk/.

Project landing pages

For some projects, it may be more appropriate to produce a landing page with more information, rather than an entire website. We can produce and host educational and informative landing pages on our website, to provide more information and link to any resources (including YouTube videos) that we produce.

Have a look at the page we designed for Prof Ben Temperton’s citizen science project, or the resource page on Maths Anxiety for Drs Julie Pepper and Katherine Ashbullby.

Infographics

We’ve prepared the first infographic for the IDSSSM team, to describe the background and aims of the project.

As part of this design, we created the project logo and colour palette which is used throughout the website. Check out the full infographic the full infographic here.

image-driven subject-specific spine models: creating a tool for understanding the spine. Back pain affects more than 1 in 6 people in the UK adn costs the UK economy over £12 billion per year. The goal: develop computer models to determine forces on the spine + understand how to prevent and treat spine disorders

Research-inspired workshops

We have years of experience designing and running workshops in schools, to communicate research to young people. In our recent work with Prof. Francesca Palombo, we have designed and delivered workshops for GCSE / A-Level students based on the research team’s work: explaining the physics of Raman and Brillouin spectroscopy, and their applications in cancer research. The resources are freely available on our Schools webpage.