October 27, 2026

Workshop Public Engagement

This interactive workshop focuses on science communication as part of Public Engagement within Open Science. Through a ‘Whisper game’ and ‘Secret Mission’ containing role plays, students learn what public engagement entails, how scientific topics can be explained tailored to a specific audience and how they can incorporate public engagement in their own career. This workshop was created by students of the Graduate School of Life Sciences at Utrecht University and UMC Utrecht as part of the Open Science course within the Life Sciences and Society profile.

February 25, 2021

Byzantium & Friends | 44. How can historians use new media to disseminate ideas?, with Merle Eisenberg Thursday Feb 25, 2021

A wide-ranging conversation with Merle Eisenberg (National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center, University of Maryland) on the opportunities created for historians by media, old and new, to disseminate our ideas to the public. Among other things, I learned what a "press release" is and how it works, as well as how historians and scientists work differently with the press. Should we bring scholarly debates to the broader public? What do we lose when we craft a good story in order to do so successfully? We also talk about our pet peeves in films that tell a good story but get the facts so infuriatingly wrong.

September 1, 2018

Blogs in Education (Edublogs)

Thousands of (master) student papers are written each year. They are checked, graded and being archived. The student paper has no further 'life'; the research work gets ‘thrown away’. Using blogging in education offers an opportunity to give ‘life’ and usefulness for the research work of the student and his paper. This, among other things, will enhance the incentives of students in their research and writing. It is also beneficial for the education programmes, individual academic courses, teachers and the society at large. With these aspirations in mind, we created in 2018 this manual for university teachers, Utrecht University. This manual provides an overview of the what, the why and, importantly, the how of blogging in education (Edublogs). Of note, this manual was created for, but certainly not limited to, law students. 1] The first document discusses a number of points concerning opportunities, possibilities and risks interconnected with using blogging in education of university graduates. 2] The second document provides a step-by-step tutorial on how to get your own blog started (as a teacher). Of note: this is only necessary when you want students to also create blogpages. 3] The third document contains a flyer summarizing the most important ideas of Edublogs, which may be useful to share with your students. 4] The fourth document discusses which learning objectives for law students can be reached using blogging.

November 2, 2022

Wetenschappers in de Publieke Arena

In het eerste deel van de driedelige serie ‘Wetenschappers in de Publieke Arena’ van de Universiteit Utrecht wordt ingegaan op de verschillende rollen die de wetenschapper kan kiezen in de interactie met verschillende publieken. In deze sessie – die een grote intervisie-component heeft – wordt aandacht besteed aan de vraag hoe en wanneer wetenschappers (onbedoeld) het publieke debat aangaan, en welke (bewuste) keuzes deze kan nemen over hoe deze communicatie plaatsvindt. Op basis van het werk van Brian Wynne en Roger A. Pielke Jr. wordt een aantal dimensies van deze interactie toegelicht waaronder de waarden onderliggend zijn aan de gekozen insteek. De sessie houdt bewust ruimte voor interactie en reflectie en gaat niet uit van een normatief kader (zo moet het) maar stelt juist een aantal mogelijke rolopvattingen centraal (bewustwording en handelingsperspectief). In het tweede deel van de driedelige serie ‘Wetenschappers in de Publieke Arena’ van de Universiteit Utrecht wordt ingegaan op het thema ‘Kwetsbaarheid’. Kwetsbaarheid in de zin van je nek uitsteken en de publieke arena betreden, in de vorm van een interview of debat. Het is goed om te weten wat je ‘rechten’ wel en niet zijn en wat leidende uitgangspunten zijn in samenwerken met de media. Ook gaan we in op de mogelijke nare kant van deze interactie: wanneer interactie omslaat in intimidatie en bedreiging. Wat zijn dan de mogelijkheden en wie kan je helpen? Ook in deze sessie geldt dat er geen normstellend karakter vanuit gaat. Wel wordt ingegaan op de normen die de media en wetenschap zichzelf tellen, bijvoorbeeld in gedragscodes en procedures. In het derde en laatste deel van de serie ‘Wetenschappers in de Publieke Arena’ van de Universiteit Utrecht wordt ingegaan op het thema ‘Collegialiteit. Hier worden de deelnemers een spiegel voorgehouden: hoe ga ik eigenlijk zelf om met public engagement activiteiten en wie betrek ik daarbij? Wat doe ik als een collega (goed/slecht) in het nieuws komt of uitgenodigd wordt en graag wil voorbereiden? De koppeling wordt gemaakt met de academisch kritische houding, met Erkennen en Waarderen en team science

September 19, 2017

Citizen Participation in City Politics

Public authorities can invite citizens to participate in the co-creation of city politics. But, how can citizens participate? In the following video, Tamara Metze explains how citizens do not only participate by voting in the local elections. Secondly, the participation ladder will be introduced as a framework to assess the degree of participation that public authorities allow and enhance from their citizens in the co-creation process. LEARNING OBJECTIVES: Design policies; governance arrangements and coordination structures for resilience planning and response addressing policy-making; public private partnerships and civic engagement. DURATION: 1 short video (~5 min long)

January 2, 2021

Urban Citizens Addressing Climate Change

In this video, Bas van Vliet will talk about ways in which urban society interacts with urban surfaces to address climate change. LEARNING OBJECTIVES: Design policies; governance arrangements and coordination structures for resilience planning and response addressing policy-making; public private partnerships and civic engagement. DURATION: 1 short video (~7 min long)

May 11, 2022

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October 16, 2017

Implementation, Governance, and Co-Creation of Sponge City in China

Now that we know about the idea of Sponge City, let’s have a look at its implementation. What does it look like in practice and which stakeholders are involved? In the next video dr. Haifeng Jia will elaborate upon the role of the national government, that formulated a national policy for developing Sponge City, and he will explain how the city-government and public-private-partnerships are essential for the implementation of the Sponge City Concept. LEARNING OBJECTIVE: Design policies; governance arrangements and coordination structures for resilience planning and response addressing policy-making; public private partnerships and civic engagement. DURATION: 1 short video (~ 9 min long)

November 4, 2017

Smart Grids and Citizens

A transition towards a smart and decentralized energy system involves changes in terms of infrastructures and technologies as well as changes in social and political areas. Robin Smale will explain this and show how citizens are involved in co-creating a more sustainable energy system. LEARNING OBJECTIVES: Obtain a general understanding of how citizens engage within smart grids. Design policies; governance arrangements and coordination structures for resilience planning and response addressing policy-making; public private partnerships and civic engagement. DURATION: 1 short video (~5 min long)

September 27, 2017

Living Labs

In sustainable urban transitions, innovation is often as much of a key concept as co-creation. The combination of these two concepts results in a huge potential for developing effective, trans- and interdisciplinary sustainable solutions that count on the support of the public given its involvement in the co-creation process. Living labs are niches in which this combination takes place: multiple actors and users collaborate to develop experimental innovations in a real-life setting. In the following video, Kris Gyselle Steen, researcher from Urban Living Labs, will explain how living labs function, with a special focus on the variety of roles that actors can adopt during the co-creation process. LEARNING OBJECTIVES: Design policies; governance arrangements and coordination structures for resilience planning and response addressing policy-making; public private partnerships and civic engagement. DURATION: 1 short video (~5 min long)