The FUTURES engagement festival is back for another year and we have lots of ways for you to get involved and share your research with festival-goers.
FUTURES2021
FUTURES2021 builds on the success of the FUTURES festival since 2018 and is led by Bath Spa University, University of Bath, University of Bristol, University of Exeter and University of Plymouth. FUTURES2021 aims to engage communities across the cities of Bath, Bristol, Exeter and Plymouth, as well as the wider areas of Devon and Cornwall with research in fun, entertaining, and inspiring ways.
FUTURES2021 is a unique opportunity to engage a broad audience with your research, both to raise awareness and to discuss ideas that may shape your research and its impacts on society.
Funded by the European Commission, FUTURES2021 will take place on European Researchers' Night on Friday 24 and Saturday 25 September 2021.
FUTURES2021 programme
The FUTURES team has developed a programme of 28 different events taking place across the South West during the last weekend in September for you to get involved with. These include hands-on experiments, science shows, games, quizzes, competitions, exhibitions, and digital activities in aquariums, botanic gardens, museums, pubs, shopping centres, the streets, and visitor attractions across the region. You can join in with any of the planned activities or bring along your own engagement activities.
Find out more below about activities led by us at the University of Bath and the online and remote engagement events. If you would like to join in, either fill in our Researcher Expression of Interest form or drop us an email
Online and remote activities
With activities ranging from community radio to chat-based schools engagement, I'm a Scientist, Get Me Out of Here! an interactive online quiz set by researchers for families, to social media events on Instagram and Twitter. Our online programme has lots to offer and includes:
FUTURES on Air
(Audience: All, Faculties: All)
Work with programme-makers on programmes that shares your research with community radio audiences from across the South West. We are looking for researchers to discuss their research with community radio programme-makers for around one hour.
Ask me Anything
(Audiences: Adults, Faculties: All)
Using social news platform Reddit, Ask Me Anythings are an opportunity for Reddit users to participate in open discussions with researchers around cutting-edge research taking place in the region and its impact on their daily lives.
Discover and Discuss
(Audience: Schools, Faculties: All)
This schools engagement project will involve you creating an activity or resource for young people to carry out at home or in the classroom and then take part in a video call with a class discussing your research.
DO Try This At Home
Aimed at families and young people, DO Try This At Home is a series of resources, based on research, participants can download and complete at home together. We are looking for researchers/research teams to be involved in developing a resource based on their research for families to do at home.
I’m a Scientist, Get Me Out of Here!
(Audience: Schools, Faculty: Science and Engineering)
This will involve young people across the South West interacting directly with you directly via chat on the I’m a Scientist platform. Participants vote for their favourite, and the winner is announced during a final live chat open to all. We are looking for scientists/engineers to participate in text-based web chats with students across various points in the last week of September. The winner will receive £500 of funding for further public engagement activity.
The Big Family Quiz
(Audience: Families with children 8+, Faculties: All)
Hosted online by the University of Plymouth, the Big Family Quiz will feature researchers from across the South West. We are looking for a researcher/research team to contribute questions to rounds relating to their research that will be combined to create a fun and competitive quiz for families.
If you're interested in any of these activities fill in our Researcher Expression of Interest form and check out the Cross-consortium activities programme for full details.
In-person activities
Test-Tubes and Time Travel with Kilter Theatre
(Audience: All, Faculty: Science and Engineering faculties)
Be part of an immersive walk around Bath with Kilter Theatre. Audiences are invited on a walk around locations in the city, using their phones to unlock videos of University scientists sharing their work, as well as meeting historical scientists along the way. We are looking for researchers to record short films (two minutes max) discussing their research that will form part of the walk.
Science Showoff
(Audience: Adults, Faculty: Science and Engineering faculties)
Try your hand at science comedy for an evening. Never done it before? Not to worry, you’ll get training and support from compere and professional comedian, Steve Cross.
Up-Late at the S.S. Great Britain
(Audience: Adults and families with children 8+, Faculties: All)
If you have demos or activities that engage people with your research, you can take them along to the S.S. Great Britain in Bristol for a late opening of the museum and heritage site.
Training and support
Going alongside the programme we'll also be running a number of training workshops to help you develop your skills and expertise in public engagement. These involve story-telling, science comedy techniques, video-making and social media training sessions.
Get involved
Do any of those activities interest you? If so, tell us what you'd like to take part in by filling in our Researcher Expression of Interest form. If you have any questions please drop us a line.
Dean Veall is Deputy Head of Public Engagement at the University of Bath.
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