Illustration of an information board on a pink background

Book a training session

The Public Engagement ‘Engaged Researcher’ training schedule for 2026/27 is available to book via UTBS: Engaged Researcher 2026/2027

Develop your public engagement skills through innovative and creative tools to engage with your research

The University of Cambridge Public Engagement Team provides a portfolio of transferable skill training and support for PGR students, researchers and professional staff.

The Engaged Researcher Professional Development programme covers all areas of public engagement with research by combining expert led practical workshops and taught sessions. No public engagement story is the same and this is reflected in the diversity of the professional development programme offered. Sessions and workshops will give you the support needed to organise, develop, deliver, communicate, publish and evaluate your Public Engagement activities.

The programme of training and workshops will run through the next academic year as follows: 

Michaelmas Term and Lent Term will introduce the foundations and fundamentals of Public Engagement, helping researchers build essential skills and boost confidence. We aim to help identify routes into engagement with specific audiences, including schools and communities, and public or patient groups. We will also introduce creative formats and media‑focused skills such as video communication, social media, personal branding, and animating research.  

Easter Term will emphasise depth, evaluation, and career integration. Sessions will explore advanced engagement practice, evaluation and impact. Following on from our Community Engagement session, we will look further into ethical processes and putting these into practice, as well as business engagement, commercialisation, and funding pipelines. We will rerun some of our introductory sessions for those who may have missed these back in October. 

For any other queries about Public Engagement, please email publicengagement@admin.cam.ac.uk. 

Registration and certification

All courses can be booked individually, so as participants can choose the trainings that match their needs and career profile, and combine them into a personal training suite. If you would like to receive recognition for your commitment to develop your public engagement skills, you can also obtain a 'Training Certificate' by completing the following steps:

  1. To attend mandatory sessions of the 'Introduction to Public Engagement' course, which is offered multiple times every year;
  2. To attend all the mandatory sessions of any 3 courses of your choice within the Engaged Researcher series;
  3. Once you have fulfilled the first two criteria please contact the training administrator, engaged.researcher@admin.cam.ac.uk to receive an application form for the certificate. The form will guide you through a short reflection on your public engagement training journey, and will ask you to summarize the outputs that you generated during the practical sessions of the courses or inspired by the courses which you have attended.

The sessions will run either online (on Microsoft Teams or Zoom) or in-person and are open to all postgraduate research students, academic and professional staff of the University. Please note that there are limited spaces available, so please book early to avoid disappointment but please remember to cancel if you are no longer able to attend.

Doctoral training coordinators

Please contact us to discuss your public engagement training requirements. We can provide introductory and bespoke training courses in public engagement and communication skills.

Fancy a chat about your public engagement?

If you're a University of Cambridge researcher or PE person, we're here for advice, to signpost to information and act as a sounding board for your ideas. Interested?  Book a slot and start a conversation with us.

  • Dr Lucinda Spokes, Head of Public Engagement, all areas and Schools - Mondays, 16:00-16:30pm and 16:30-17:00pm
  • Dr Diogo Gomes, Public Engagement and Communications Manager, Clinical Medicine, Biological Sciences - Wednesdays, 13:00- 3:30pm and 13:30-14:00pm
  • Dr Claudia Antolini, Public Engagement Manager, all areas and Schools - Thursday, 14:00-14:30pm and 14:30pm-15:00pm

Please get in touch with our administrator at engaged.researcher@admin.cam.ac.uk with any training related queries.

Further links